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HERO OF MACEDON, 



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IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 



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BY 

WILLIAM LADD, 

AUTHOR OF THE " FRENCH SOLDIER," &.C. 



BOSTON : 
PUBLISHED BY JAMES LORING. 

1832. 






Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1832, 

BY JAMES LORING, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



/&*# 



PREFACE. 



I was forcibly struck, by the remark of an eminent 
minister of the gospel, in Philadelphia, after a lecture 
on Peace, delivered in his church, that all history 
should be rewritten. If we look into history, particu- 
larly ancient history, we shall find it to be but the 
annals of war and bloodshed, ruin and desolation. 
War was not only the pastime, but the serious busi- 
ness and occupation, of almost the whole race of 
mankind, particularly of that portion, which we have 
been in the habit of calling civilized, in distinction 
to that which is called barbarian. This is civilization 
without the Gospel, and it is just such a civilization 
as we should expect to find in heathens. 

It is, however, a lamentable fact, that Christians, 
so called, have been but little behind the heathen 
in the extent and number of their wars, though we 
have reason to be thankful that Christianity, little 
as it has been practised, has done much towards 
softening the ferocity of war, and, though the passion 
for glory and distinction is full as great among 



VI PREFACE. 

nominal Christians as it was among the ancient 
heathen, and all those lusts, from which, as St. James 
tells us, wars and fightings proceed, are still in full 
operation, yet, by comparing modern with ancient 
history, we may find that modern wars, though full 
as extensive as those of ancient times, have differed 
considerably from them in ferocity, which formerly 
subjected all classes, all ages, and both sexes, 
indiscriminately, to slaughter or slavery. This we 
owe to the partial diffusion of the principles of 
Christ among his professed followers. Oh | then, 
"if Christian nations were indeed nations of Chris- 
tians," and if professed Christians would adopt the 
precepts of Christ as their rule of conduct, and love 
their enemies and feed them when hungry ; if they 
avenged not themselves, but rendered good for evil, 
the time would soon come, when, at least in Chris- 
tendom, the sword would be turned to a ploughshare 
and the spear to a pruning hook ; and the heathen 
would again say, " See how these Christians love 
one another !" % 

If we examine into the reasons why professing 
Christians have been so backward to follow the 
precepts of Christ, which forbid war, we shall find a 
principal one to be the constant study of heathen 
books, and the examples of heroism continually set 
before the minds of youth, and applauded in history- 
examples, alas ! more likely to be imitated than that 
of Christ and his apostles, and imitated because 
applauded. Ambition and the love of military glory 
were excited in the mind of Alexander by reading 



PREFACE. VU 

the poems of Homer, and he made Achilles his 
model and exemplar. Had it not been for this, his 
mind might have taken another direction, and he 
might have delighted in science and virtue, and been 
the father of his people and the benefactor of his 
race. Charles XII. of Sweden, had the history of 
Alexander, by Quintus Curtius, put into his hand, 
as a school book in learning Latin. This gave his 
mind a military direction, and he made Alexander 
his model, and, like him, sought for conquest and 
renown in arms, without regard to the good or hurt of 
his country. No two men were more alike than 
Alexander and Charles, except in success. From 
the times of" Macedonia's madman and the Swede," 
down to the present day, like causes have produced 
like effects, and it may with truth be affirmed, that 
the blind poet of Greece has done more injury to 
mankind, than any uninspired author ever did good ; 
and yet we continue to administer the same poison 
to our youth. 

In order, as much as possible, to apply an antidote, 
I have thought it adviseable to take the character of 
the greatest hero of antiquity, if not of the world, and 
analyze it by Christian principles, and the result I 
think will be, that we shall find that "those things, 
which are highly esteemed among men, are an 
abomination in the sight of God." 

I would not have our youth ignorant of ancient 
history ; for much useful instruction maybe gleaned 
from it ; but I would have this history rewritten, and 
the young scholar directed in the perusal of it by 



VU1 PREFACE. 

the light of the gospel and the finger of truth ; and 
be taught to separate the precious from the vile, 
and not to call evil good and good evil. 

In compiling this little book, I have taken the 
facts from Plutarch, Rollin, and Rees's Cyclopaedia ; 
and for the exposition of the prophecies, I have 
consulted Scott's commentary ; and, indeed, many of 
the reflections and remarks are from the same 
authors, except the first, so that there is but very 
little of it which I call my own, and I take no credit 
to myself, except for diligence in extracting, com- 
paring and arranging the passages from these 
authors. I have therefore put no marks of quotation 
to the extracted passages, giving the due credit 
here, once for all, to the above named authors. I 
trust that I seek not fame but usefulness ; and 
if I can, in this humble way, advance the cause of 
peace on earth and good will to man, it will be a 
sufficient reward for 

The Author. 

June, 1832. 



HERO OF MACEDON. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth and Education of Alexander ....Death of Philip, 

Alexander, called the great by ancient 
historians and biographers, was the son of 
Philip, king of Macedon, by Olympias, daughter 
of Neoptolemus ; who was son of Alcetas, king 
of Epirus. 

Ancient Macedonia formed a part of what is 
now called Turkey in Europe. It was bounded 
on the east by the JEgean sea, on the south by 
Thessaly and Epirus, on the west by the Adriatic 
or Ionian sea, on the north by the river Strymon, 
the Scandian mountains, and the river Nisus. 
It was about 220 miles long and 160 miles wide. 
The inhabitants spoke the Greek language, and 
many geographers and historians have given 
the common name of Greek to both, but I shall, 
2 



10 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

in this little book, distinguish them from the 
other Greeks who inhabited countries south of 
them. 

The Sabbath-school scholar will remember, 
that the apostle Paul preached the gospel hi 
Macedonia, and this is the first account we 
have of the preaching of the gospel in Europe. 
It was here that Paul and Silas were imprisoned, 
and were released by an earthquake, and the 
jailor was converted, and that St. Paul claimed 
the privilege of a Roman citizen, for Macedonia 
had then become a Roman province. 

Alexander was born at Pella, the capital of 
Macedonia, in the year 356 before Christ, on 
the very day on which the great temple Diana 
at Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the 
world, was burnt. If I were inclined to be 
superstitious, and believed in signs and auguries, 
I might think, that the burning of this splendid 
work of art on the same day in which a child 
was born, who was to destroy and lay waste 
the finest specimens of ancient architecture, had 
some connexion with his birth; and that it 
intimated the destruction which he was destined 
to accomplish : but the Christian religion teaches 
us to despise these heathen fables. 

One Herostratus had set fire to this beautiful 
and gigantic temple, as he confessed when he 
was put to the torture, in order to get himself a 
great name, and I do not see why he was not 
quite as rational as any hero who destroys, not 
only temples built by hands, but also millions of 
human bodies, which St. Paul calls the " temples 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 11 

of the Holy Ghost." In order to defeat his 
intentions, the states of Asia enacted a law 
forbidding the mention of his name. Had he 
been a great benefactor to mankind, his name 
would, probably, have been forgotten, but, those 
who have done the greatest mischief in society, 
are sure to have their names recorded in history, 
in spite of edicts and decrees. If the name of 
Alexander had been lost in oblivion, it would 
have saved rivers of human blood. If no one 
had written his biography, or if those who did 
write it, had shown him in his true colours, his 
example would not have instigated the lovers of 
glory to deeds of violence and bloodshed, barely, 
like Herostratus and Alexander, to get them- 
selves a great name. 

From early infancy, Alexander's ruling passion 
w r as a lust of fame, and of all sorts of fame he 
most coveted military glory. He manifested no 
desire to be esteemed as the benefactor of 
mankind. The ancient heathen praised those 
most who were the greatest destroyers of human 
life and happiness, and caused the greatest 
amount of misery, sighs and tears. To this 
heathen glory Alexander aspired in preference 
to all others. It appears strange that men in 
any age should admire and idolize such charac- 
ters, but we must remember, that the cotempo- 
raries of Alexander were blind heathens, who 
never had the light of the Gospel, which holds 
up to our admiration and for our imitation a 
character directly opposite to that of heroes in 
Jesus Christ, who came into the world and 



12 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

suffered and died, " not to destroy men's lives, 
but to save them."* 

Alexander was so covetous of this kind of 
glory, that he envied even his own father Philip, 
when he heard that he had killed a great many 
men, and taken a great number of cities. " My 
friends," said he to his companions, " my father 
will possess himself of every thing, and leave 
for us nothing to do." He was fearful that his 
father would leave fewer men for him to kill, 
and fewer cities to plunder. He wanted to 
have all the honor of doing these wicked things 
himself. As though a young thief should be 
sorry that his father had stolen so much, not 
for the sin of it ; but lest there should be less 
for him to steal, when he should become a man. 

When some Persian ambassadors came to 
Philip's court, his father being absent, Alexan- 
der received them with great dignity and urban- 
ity* Buthe did not asj^ them about any of the 
arts anS^iences^Fl^ersi a, but only about their 
wars, and the manner in which they invaded 
other countries and destroyed the inhabitants. 
As it was his glory to destroy rather than to 
build, to pluck up rather than to plant, his main 
object was to learn the art of destruction. It is 
wonderful that the Persian ambassadors should 
admire and praise the youth who was destined to 



* I shall not give the references to all the scripture texts which 
are quoted, partly because they are well known, partly because, 
as they will be very jiumerous, the references would take up too 
much room, and partly because I thought it would be a good 
exercise for the Sabbath-School scholar to find them out. 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 13 

lay waste and enslave their country ; but being 
themselves admirers of military glory, they un- 
consciously assisted in the destruction of their 
own country, by praising the future destroyer 
of it, and fanning the flames of his ambition by 
praising his love of war: so blind are men 
unenlightened by the gospel to their own welfare! 

Philip, anxious for what he thought a good 
education for his son, chose for his preceptor 
Aristotle, the celebrated philosopher ; and, in 
order to show his respect for him, rebuilt his 
native city Stagira, which he had before de- 
stroyed, and reinstated the inhabitants, who had 
fled or been made slaves ; and gave them, be- 
sides, a fine park. Philip would have better 
shown his love of philosophy and of Aristotle, 
by sparing the native place of that philosopher. 

Aristotle took great care to instruct his pupil 
in mathematics,, rhetoric, and other sciences ; 
but it could not be expected, that a man, who 
was only a philosopher, would have paid much 
attention to moral qualities. Indeed, it is still 
too much the case, that instructers take more 
care of the head than of the heart. Six days of 
the week, are, almost exclusively, devoted to 
the acquisition of science, while only one is de- 
voted to the improvement of the affections. And 
happy would it be, if nothing were taught in 
our schools, in the six days of the week, which 
has no immoral tendency. But, especially, 
when our youth are studying heathen books, 
ought they to be extremely cautious, lest they 
be deluded by the fascinating glare of heathen 
2* 



14 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

morality, which is as opposite to the morality of 
the gospel as darkness is to light. How thank- 
ful ought children, born in a Christian land, to 
be that they have Sabbath schools and bible 
classes, and a preached gospel, and religious 
tracts, and Sabbath-school books, and so much 
to improve the heart and mend the morals, 
which poor heathen children never had, and 
how great is their accountability for the use 
they make of their privileges, for, " where much 
is given, much will be required." 

The author that Alexander liked best to 
study was Homer, called " the prince of poets," 
by reading of whose works he became enthusi- 
astically fond of praise, and a great admirer of 
animal courage, savage ferocity, and a contempt, 
not only of the lives of others, but of his own. 
This led him on to deeds of slaughter and 
blood-shed, invading countries which had never 
known him, and, in fact, were unknown to him, 
before his invasion. He made Achilles his 
model, and endeavoured to imitate him. Dr. 
Darwin observes, « The works of Homer are 
supposed to have done great injury to mankind, 
by inspiring the love of military glory. How 
like a mad butcher amidst a flock of sheep, 
appears the hero of the Iliad, in the following 
fine lines of Mr. Pope, which conclude the 
twentieth book. 

" His fiery coursers, as the chariot rolls, 
Tread down whole ranks and crush out heroes' souls, 
Dash'd from the hoofs, as o'er the dead they fly, . 
Black bloody drops the smoking chariot dye, 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 15 

The spiky wheels through heaps of carnage tore, 
And thick the groaning axles dropp'd with gore. 
High o'er the scene of death Achilles stood, 
All grim with dust and horrible with blood, 
Yet still insatiate, still with rage on flame — 
Such is the lust of never-dying fame.'" 

So greatly did Alexander esteem the works 
of Homer, that when, after the battle of Arbela, 
they found, amongst the spoils of Darius, a gold 
box enriched with precious stones, which had 
been used to hold perfumes, he ordered that it 
should be put to no other use than to hold the 
poems of Homer, which he believed to be the 
most perfect and precious of all books. — Alas! 
he had never seen a Bible. He particularly 
admired the Iliad, which treats most of war and 
blood-shed, and describes furious battles, in 
which men are killed in all the most horrid 
forms of death. This he called " the best pro- 
vision of a warrior;" and he always laid it, 
with his sword, at night, under his pillow. How 
much does this devotedness of Alexander put 
to shame the conduct of many a Christian pro- 
fessor, who ought to consider his Bible as the 
best provision of a Christian, and that " the 
sword of the spirit, which is the word of God," 
is the only sword fit to be handled by a follower 
of the Prince of Peace, and to be his constant 
companion by night and by day. If Alexander 
had had the Gospel put into his hands, instead 
of the works of a heathen poet, he might have 
made Jesus Christ, " the great captain of our 
salvation/' his model, instead of u the fierce 



16 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

Achilles ;" but, unhappy for him and for man- 
kind, he lived before the light of the Gospel 
dawned on a benighted world. Had he lived 
in a later day and read the gospel instead of the 
Iliad, he might have been the benefactor, instead 
of the destroyer, of his species. But we ought 
to pity him, for he was born in the darkness of 
heathenism, he did not enjoy the light of the 
Gospel, and knew nothing of those divine pre- 
cepts : " Love your enemies, bless them that 
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and 
pray for them that despitefully use you and 
persecute you." " Whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 
" Recompense to no man evil for evil." "Live 
peaceably with all men." " If thine enemy 
hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink." 
" Be not overcome of evil ; but overcome evil 
with good." But we ought not to hate nor 
despise him, for if we differ from him we ought 
to " thank God who hath made us to differ," 
and when we consider that the humblest Sabbath- 
school scholar, if he be pious, though he be 
"least in the kingdom of heaven," is greater 
than Alexander the Great ; how thankful should 
the children of the present age be for their 
privileges ! 

So jealous of the praise of others was Alexan- 
der, that he found great fault with his tutor, 
for having published, in his absence, certain 
metaphysical pieces, and desired him not to 
show a treatise on rhetoric to any one but him- 
self, for men, who are covetous of praise, want 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 



17 



to get it all to themselves ; and are very much 
displeased if any one conies in competition with 
them. How different is this from the feelings 
of the real Christian, which prompts us to 
rejoice in the fame of others, " in honor pre- 
ferring one another," and " not to be desirous of 
vain-glory, provoking one another, envying one 
another." We are commanded in the Gospel, 
to " let nothing be done through strife or vain- 
glory, but, in lowliness of mind let each esteem 
others better than themselves." We are for- 
bidden to seek the acquisition of, even, useful 
learning from a spirit of vain-glory and envy, 
only that we may appear better than others ; 
but, in all the studies of youth, they should 
make the glory of God and the happiness of 
their fellow creatures their principal, if not their 
only object. A Christian scholar will rejoice 
in the success of his school mates, and will be 
thankful for their prospects of usefulness. The 
love of praise, so highly extolled by heathen 
writers, is unworthy a Christian, and ought to 
be banished from our seminaries of learning, 
but, particularly, from our Sabbath schools. 
Christ blames the scribes and pharisees, because 
they did things " to be seen of men/' though 
the things which they did were right and com- 
mendable in themselves. 

If Aristotle had taught Alexander any lessons 
of moral philosophy, his pupil did him no great 
credit by his proficiency in governing his tem- 
per, for once, at a dinner given on occasion of 
a new marriage which his father had made with 



18 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

ayoung and beautiful lady, having divorced Oly m- 
pias; Alexander, taking offence at a remark made 
by Attalus, the uncle of the bride, and at the 
same time heated with wine, flung the cup at his 
head. Attalus returned the compliment, upon 
which, the quarrel grew warmer. Philip, who 
sat at another table, was very much offended to 
see the feast interrupted in this manner, and, 
not recollecting that he was lame, drew his 
sword and ran directly at his son. Happily, 
the father fell, so that the guests had an oppor- 
tunity of stepping in between them. The 
greatest difficulty, was to keep Alexander from 
rushing upon his ruin. Exasperated at a suc- 
cession of such heinous affronts, in spite of all 
the guests could say concerning the duty he 
owed to Philip, as his father and his sovereign, 
he vented his resentment in most bitter and 
taunting words, after which he left the hall and 
the kingdom, taking his mother with him, thus 
early showing his ungovernable temper and his 
fondness for wine. How often is it, that the 
private life of those whom the world calls great, 
would be a scandal to the meanest citizen ! 
Here we see intemperance, debauchery, anger, 
malice, and disobedience to parents, in a family 
so renowned in the world : and a father and 
son, intoxicated with wine and rage, mutually 
reproaching each other : yet these are those 
whom the world calls " the great. " 9 They 
were, however, soon after reconciled. 

One of the first feats of Alexander, was the 
breaking of a famous horse called Bucephalus — 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 19 

for houses may be famous as well as men — 
which he did with great courage, address and 
agility. Whereon Philip shed tears of joy, 
embraced him, kissed his head, and said, " my 
son, seek a kingdom more worthy of thee, for 
Macedonia is below thy merit." Animal cour- 
age and physical power were much esteemed, 
and almost worshipped by the ancients ; but, 
though we should value them as great blessings, 
for which the possessor should be grateful to God 
and use them for his glory, yet they add nothing 
to the character of a Christian. Even Plato, a 
heathen philosopher, but who, we suppose, had 
s^mie intercourse with the Jews, from whom he 
learnt something of the morality of the Bible, 
thought very differently from Philip on this 
subject, for when one of his scholars had shown 
uncommon skill in driving a chariot, while all 
applauded, Plato only sighed at the thought that 
all his teaching had been wasted on a youth 
who prided himself on being an expert coach- 
man ; and that his disciple was better suited to 
the office of an hostler than of a legislator. Our 
youth have not a Bucephalus to break, but they 
have their own passions to subdue ; and when, 
by the assistance of divine grace, they are able 
to curb their own passions, they should think 
themselves much more happy, than though they 
were able to ride an unruly horse, for an in- 
spired writer has said, " he that ruleth his 
spirit, is better than he who taketh a city." 
One requires moral courage, which is the attri- 
bute of reason, and which assimilates us to the 
angels in heaven ; while the other requires only 



20 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

animal courage, which man shares with brute 
beasts. Alexander had a great affection for 
this horse, and built a city in honor of his 
memory, as he did another in honor of a dog, 
both of which were probably heroes in their 
way. Caligula, a Roman emperor did even 
more than this for his horse, named Incitatus ; 
for he made him a consul, or governor, and 
built a marble palace for him. Men may be 
" without natural affection/' and yet be great 
lovers of brutes. 

It must be allowed, however, that Alexander 
was a youth of uncommon attainments and 
bravery. When he was only sixteen years of 
age he w T as appointed regent of Macedonia, 
during his father's absence ; and his conduct 
manifested such prudence and courage, that he 
was afterwards employed in several military 
enterprises, in which he behaved with great 
honor to himself and singular satisfaction to 
Philip, whose life he had preserved by his 
resolute and seasonable interposition. In the 
battle of Cheronea, at the age of eighteen, he 
signalized himself by his great valor, and 
greatly contributed to the victory. 

Philip commenced the slavery of Greece, 
which was completed by Alexander. Bribery 
and corruption caused the fall of Grecian 
liberty more than the valor of Philip or his son. 
In order to reconcile the Greeks to their servi- 
tude, Philip planned the conquest of Persia, 
well knowing that victory reconciles men to 
slavery, for, alas ! it is found, even among 
nations bearing the Christian name, that men 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 21 

had rather be victorious slaves than peaceful 
freemen, and, provided they can place the yoke 
on the necks of others, feel their own but little. 
Philip made another great feast, on the occa- 
sion of marrying his daughter, in which the 
images of his wooden gods were carried in 
procession, and he had his own image repre- 
senting him as a god, and surpassing all the 
others in magnificence, added to the number. 
Alas for him, a poor ignorant god, who could 
not foresee his own end, any more than the 
wooden blocks, for he was assassinated in that 
very procession, by Pausanius, the captain of 
his guard, for a grudge he entertained against 
him. Thus Philip fell by the sword, exempli- 
fying the denunciation of our Saviour, when he 
said, " all they who take the sword shall perish 
by the sword." The death of Philip very much 
rejoiced the citizens of Athens, which had been 
subdued by him, who abandoned themselves to 
transports of immoderate joy at the news. Men 
will rejoice at the death of a tyrant and a con- 
queror, but the Christian religion forbids us to 
triumph over a fallen enemy, and commands 
us to pray for him, and to bless them that perse- 
cute us, to bless and curse not," and " not to 
let the sun go down upon our wrath," and to 
" abstain from all appearance of evil." It is 
strange that, after reading such texts, Christians 
can consent to follow the customs and example 
of the ignorant heathen, and celebrate victories 
and the anniversaries of them, by intemperate 
revelling. 

3 



22 THE HERO OF MACEDON 



CHAPTER II. 



Insurrection of the conquered provinces .... Troubles in Greece. 
Destruction of Thebes .... Alexander appointed Generalissimo 
of Greece ....Invasion of Persia.... Passage of the Granicus. 

Alexander was twenty years old when his 
father was assassinated, and immediately suc- 
ceeded to the crown. Darius, king of Persia, 
whom he was destined to dethrone, was crowned 
the same year. His first care was to solemnize 
the funeral obsequies of his father, and revenge 
his death. 

Upon his accession to the throne, he saw 
himself surrounded with extreme dangers. The 
barbarous nations, against whom Philip had 
fought during his whole reign, and from whom 
he had made several conquests, which he had 
united to his crown, after having dethroned 
their natural kings, thought proper to take 
advantage of this juncture, in which a new 
prince who was but young, had ascended the 
throne, for recovering their liberty and uniting 
against the common usurper. Nor was he' 
under less apprehension from Greece. Philip, 
though he had permitted the several cities and 
commonwealths to continue their ancient form 
of government, had, however, entirely changed 
it in reality, and made himself absolute master 
of them. Though he were absent, he never- 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 23 

theless ruled in all assemblies : and not a single 
resolution was taken, but in subordination to 
his will. Though he had subdued all Greece, 
either by the terror of his arms or the secret 
machinations of policy, he had not had time 
sufficient to subject and accustom it to his 
power, but had left all things in it in great fer- 
ment and discord ; the mind of the vanquished 
not being yet calmed and moulded to subjection. 
Thus, we find the memory of the conqueror 
abhorred and detested, and at last, what is left 
to him of all his conquests, but a coffin and a 
shroud ! 

On the death of Philip, all the northern 
nations, whom the Greeks, in the pride of their 
heart, stigmatized as barbarians, endeavoured 
to recover their liberty, as did also Greece. 
Alexander followed the policy of his father, and 
accomplished by treachery what he could not 
do by arms. Among other things, he caused 
Attalus, one of the lieutenants of his father, of 
whom he was suspicious, to be assassinated. 
The more wicked and unprincipled a conqueror 
is, the more he is, generally, successful. 

Having suppressed the rebellion of his north- 
ern provinces, Alexander marched into Greece, 
to rivet the shackles of slavery on that land, 
which boasted so much of its refinement, arms, 
and liberty. He took and entirely destroyed, the 
beautiful city of Thebes, so famous for its demi 
gods and heroes. So we see, that military 
prowess is no sure defence, and that the spoiler 
is often spoiled. Six thousand Thebans were 



24 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

slain in the siege, and 30,000 were sold into 
slavery. 

He was more lenient to Athens, which was 
the most famous of all the ancient cities for its 
literature, and, wishing for the applause of the 
Athenians, and to be well spoken of in their 
poems and histories, he spared their city. 
Thus we see, that the pen is, sometimes, a 
safeguard, when the sword has failed. 

As soon as he had effectually smothered the 
reviving liberties of Greece, he summoned the 
supreme council, or states general, of the whole 
country, and obliged it to undertake the invasion 
of Persia, and to confer the supreme command 
of the army on himself, as it had before on his 
father, and the Greeks consented to leave their 
own happy country, to go in quest of conquests 
to add laurels to the brow of the tyrant who had 
enslaved them. There are two kinds of hero- 
ism, the heroism of action and the heroism of 
suffering. A Christian hero would sooner suffer 
death himself, than be made a tool in the hands 
of a tyrant, to inflict slavery and death on 
others. 

When heroes have determined on war, it 
seems necessary that there should be some 
excuse for it. Men even in the most barbarous 
times, have always demanded some justification 
for waging war. But as Frederic the great, 
king of Prussia, once observed, " kings decide, 
make war, and leave it to some barbarous 
civilian to find out a cause for it." So it was 
in the present instance. Philip had determined 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 25 

on the conquest of Persia, and Alexander, in- 
spired by the same ambition, followed up the 
determination. 

The real cause of the war was the love of 
praise, so far as Philip, Alexander and some of 
their principal generals were concerned. Many 
followed them for the sake of pay and plunder, 
many to escape the restraints which peace im- 
poses on their conduct, and from the desire to 
give vent to their passions and indulge in the 
licentiousness of the camp. Others, doubtless, 
followed because they dare not refuse. The 
dangers of war were distant ; the danger of 
refusal was present. Men fear present danger, 
more than distant, and many have engaged in 
war from sheer cowardice. Nearly the same 
principles are called into action in all wars. 
Were mankind governed by the spirit of the 
gospel, no nation would ever invade another's 
country. 

The excuse given for this war was that 
Xerxes, 150 years before, had invaded Greece, 
and the excuse of Xerxes was, that the Greeks 
had burnt one of his cities. Thus wars, once 
begun, may continue until one or both parties 
are ruined, and each side find plausible excuses 
for their justification ; and a whole nation is 
punished for the faults, real or pretended, of its 
ancestors. It was the gold of Persia which 
attracted the attention of the Greeks, and 
caused its overthrow, and the war which Xerxes 
had waged against Greece, more than a century 
before, was only the pretext. 



26 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

Alexander having arrived in his hereditary 
kingdom, immediately took measures for the 
invasion of Persia. First of all, he had a, great 
carousal. He had a tent raised, large enough 
to contain one hundred tables for his principal 
officers, and he feasted his soldiers besides. If 
it was indeed necessary to invade Persia and 
lay waste so fine a country, and destroy so many 
fine cities and so many lives, one would suppose, 
that it should be commenced with fasting and 
prayer, rather than with feasting and drinking, 
and that the soldiers should be clothed with 
sackcloth and ashes, rather than with splendid 
uniforms. The Persians, however, were of a 
different religion from the Greeks. Alexander 
might think that enough to excuse his rejoicing 
in the prospect of their destruction. But, alas! 
Christians destroy Christians and glory in it, 
with as little remorse as this pagan hero went 
forth to destroy the worshippers of fire, and 
plunder their property ! But Christians say, 
that they are only the executioners of justice in 
waging war on their brother Christians ! If 
they are indeed executioners, they should put 
on the dress suitable to those terrible ministers 
of death. We should be much surprised to see 
a public executioner dressed up like a harlequin 
and his dreadful work accompanied with music, 
dancing and carousing. 

Before Alexander marched on this expedition, 
in order to attach his general officers to himself, 
he made them great presents, which, without 
doubt, were taken from the amount of taxes 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 27 

imposed on his own subjects, or plundered from 
conquered countries, so that, whatever might 
be the booty which Alexander and his army 
might acquire in the expedition, his poor subjects 
who paid the taxes to support the armament 
were to reap no benefit. Such is the case in 
successful wars of the present times, the poor 
pay the expense and the rich get the plunder. 
Some of the generals, however, refused the 
crown-lands offered them by Alexander, having 
better hopes in Asia. 

At length, Alexander having arranged all his 
affairs, set out for Asia in the beginning of the 
spring, with an army of 30,000 foot soldiers and 
6,000 horse, a small army indeed, if compared 
with many others, both ancient and modern, 
but large for his little kingdom and the states 
of Greece, which, by this means, were deprived 
of 36,000 men who were, or might have been, 
heads of families, beside the great number of 
attendants on the army, which, in ancient times, 
were nearly as numerous as the army itself, of 
course leaving as great a number of females 
unprovided for ; for, although many more fol- 
lowed them, very few ever returned. He 
crossed the Hellespont which separates European 
Asia, in galleys and flat-bottomed boats, and 
landed in Asia without opposition, in the year 
334 before Christ, being 145 years after Xerxes 
had crossed the same strait with a million of 
men for the invasion of Europe. Arrived at the 
city of Lampsacus, he had resolved to destroy 
it, but was deterred by the wit of one of its 



28 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

citizens, so that, in this case, " wisdom was 
better than weapons of war." 

Having prepared for his expedition by a 
variety of superstitious ceremonies, to which 
he was much attached, he proceeded to Ilium, 
the ruins of ancient Troy, where he sacrificed 
to Minerva and to the heroes buried in the 
neighbourhood, particularly to Achilles and the 
ghost of Priam. He was a great admirer of the 
fierce Achilles, whose rage and valor had been 
so ably celebrated by Homer, that he envied 
him his good fortune in having such a poet to 
blazon his fame. The Christian seeks not the 
honor which cometh from man, but, like the 
truly great Howard, does good for the sake of 
pleasing God and benefitting mankind : but 
God is not pleased with the destruction of his 
creatures. 

Hitherto Alexander had had no fighting, in 
which he delighted as much as a game cock or 
bull dog, who resembled him in nature ; but 
the Christian child, would say in the words of 
Dr. Watts, 

" Let dogs delight to bark and bite, 
Since God hath made them so, 
Let bears and lions growl and fight, 
It is their nature too." 

Christians are taught to love their enemies 
and not to destroy them, much less to destroy 
those who never injured them. 

The invaders now arrived at the river Grani- 
cus, and were to fight their first battle ; the 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 29 

Persian army, consisting, according to the ac- 
count of the Greeks, of 100,000 foot and 10,000 
horse, opposing their passage, But these were 
raw troops, who had never been brought up 
amid blood and carnage, and, of course, could 
not, at once be brought to look upon them with 
composure, except a small body of mercenaries, 
who were ready to sell their blood to any 
purchaser, who fought only for pay, and who 
were therefore ready to run away when there 
was no hope of plunder, or to go over to the 
enemy. Nevertheless, these mercenary soldiers 
were generally men of great courage and disci- 
pline. They were murderers by profession, 
who made slaughter by wholesale their trade, 
by which they got their bread, and they gave 
Alexander more trouble than any other of his 
opponents, principally, perhaps, because he 
showed them no quarter. They, however, 
composed but a small part of the Persian armies. 
It was not wonderful, therefore, that Alexander 
gained the victory. 

Here we see a war of offence and a war of 
defence. If Alexander was right in attacking 
Persia, the Persians were wrong to oppose him. 
If the Persians were right in defending their 
country, it was wrong in Alexander to invade 
it ; for it is highly absurd, to suppose that both 
sides were right. That the gospel does not 
allow of any war of offence, revenge, or retalia- 
tion is certain, for it says, " recompense to no 
man evil for evil." " Avenge not yourselves, 
neither give place unto wrath, for it is written, 



30 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the 
Lord." " See that no man render evil for evil 
unto any man." " Follow peace with «^men." 
These passages forbid what is called justifiable 
war, and of course wars of conquest, which few 
in this enlightened age are so absurd as to 
attempt to justify ; but all wars are now justified 
on the score of self-defence, but the gospel opens 
us the true origin of war, when it says, " From 
whence come wars and fightings among you, 
come they not hence, even from your lusts, 
which war in your members ¥* Yes, whatever 
may be the pretext for war, it originates in 
ambition, avarice, revenge, and other vile and 
sinful passions. Many good people doubt 
whether the gospel allows even defensive w r ar, 
and that it is our duty not to resist evil, but to 
put our trust in God. However this may be, it 
is certain that, if offensive war were to cease, 
defensive war would cease also. 

Alexander with his forces crossed the river, 
which was not deep, in spite of the Persians, 
and after having, himself, performed prodigies 
of valor, and having very nearly lost his own 
life, which was saved by Clitus, one of his 
generals, he put the Persian horse to flight. 
When he came to attack the foot soldiers, he 
found among them a body of Greeks in the 
employment of Darius, the king of Persia, 
advantageously posted on a rising ground, who 
opposed him with great valor, being unable to 
escape from his cavalry, and fearing that they 
should be cruelly treated if taken. Here we 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 31 

find Greeks fighting against Greeks, and men 
of the same language, the same religion and 
the same country, eagerly spilling each other's 
blood. But these were poor, benighted heathens, 
who had never had the gospel to teach theui 
any better. Would any one believe, that Chris- 
tians, the lambs of Christ's flock, the followers 
of the meek and lowly Jesus, would do the 
same ? Alas, even in Christendom, there are 
men who are not ashamed to defend such con- 
duct, and to hire themselves out, as assassins, 
to any one who will pay them to cut the throats 
of their brethren, without regard to the justice 
of the cause in which they are engaged, pro- 
vided only that there has been a declaration of 
war. I do not say, that such men are Christians 
indeed, but the church of Christ has never, 
since the first ages, given her testimony against 
the practice, and many a Christian writer has 
related instances of it, not only without rebuke, 
but, in such a manner, as would leave the reader 
to suppose that he approves of it. Even the 
benevolent Fenelon, in his Telemachus, inti- 
mates to the king of France, that it is expedient 
to send his young officers abroad, to fight in a 
foreign service, when France itself should be at 
peace. All this body of Greeks were killed, 
except about 200, whom Alexander reduced to 
slavery. The Persians lost, in the whole, 
20,000 foot and 2,500 horse, while the invaders 
lost in the whole but 115 men, according to the 
account of the Macedonians. Alexander himself 
commanded the horse, and Parmenio the in- 



32 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

fantry; The king took a great deal of spoil, a 
part of which he sent to his mother, and a part 
to the different states of Greece to conciliate 
their favor. 



CHAPTER III. 

Submission of Sardis and other cities Alexander cuts the 

Gordian knot.... Takes cold by bathing in the river Cydnus .... 
Battle of Issus. 

Sardis surrendered to the conqueror without 
resistance. This ancient city had been burnt 
by the Athenians just two centuries before, 
which caused the invasion of Greece by Xerxes. 
It was of little consequence to the inhabitants 
what king they lived under. In either case, 
they must be slaves ; and it is a matter of wonder, 
that men are so infatuated, as to fight for one 
tyrant against another, when they have nothing 
to lose which they can call their own, except 
their lives. It is strange that they so willingly 
expose themselves when nothing is to be gained. 
But men have always been so educated, and 
children, in despotic countries, are early taught, 
that it is a duty to fight for their king, no matter 
what the cause of the war may be. The Bible- 
class scholar will recollect that Sardis was 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 33 

afterwards the place of one of the seven churches 
of Asia mentioned in Revelations. 

From Sardis Alexander marched to Ephesus, 
where St. Paul preached, as is mentioned in the 
19th chapter of Acts, and where was another of 
the seven churches of Asia mentioned in Reve- 
lations. Here the king worshipped the image 
of the goddess Diana, said by the heathens to 
have fallen down from Jupiter, but, if all be 
true which was said of that image, Jupiter was 
a very poor carver. In heathen mythology 
Diana was the daughter of Jupiter, representing 
the moon, and was the goddess of hunting and 
archery, and was often represented by heathen 
poets as taking sides in war, and was famous 
for her chastity. Fabulous history is always 
opposite to the truth. The women of the 
present day, who follow the camp, are commonly 
of quite a contrary character, and a warlike 
woman is an anomaly in nature, better repre- 
sented by the furies, than by a goddess. The 
famous temple of Ephesus, as 1 have before 
stated, was burnt on the very day on which our 
hero was born. The Ephesians had now began 
to rebuild it, and Alexander offered to pay the 
whole expense, provided they would put no 
inscription on the temple but his name, for he 
was insatiably greedy of every kind of praise. 
Thus we see, that the love of glory, which is 
the same thing as the love of being talked about 
could induce one man to burn a temple and 
another to rebuild it. Can that be a motive 
suitable for a Christian, which can produce 
4 



84 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

such opposite effects? The Ephesians, not 
being willing to consent to Alexander's proposal, 
and afraid to refuse him, had recourse to artful 
flattery for an evasion. They told him, that it 
was inconsistent for one god to erect monuments 
to another, with which gross flattery the hero 
was satisfied. And this is the man whom the 
world calls the great ! A child would hardly 
have given up its play-thing on so weak a pre- 
tence. 

Before Alexander left Ephesus, the deputies 
of Tralles and Magnesia waited upon him with 
the keys of those cities, for they had only to 
pass from one master to another. But Miletus, 
the city at which St. Paul took his affectionate 
leave of the elders of the church of Ephesus, 
previous to his going up to Jerusalem — made 
a vigorous defence, but, after having often 
repulsed the assailants, it capitulated, for fear 
of being taken by storm. The soldiers and 
inhabitants were spared, but the conqueror sold 
all the foreigners whom he found in the city 
into slavery. No crime is alleged against the 
foreigners why they should be reduced to slavery, 
but conquerors do as they please. War and 
slavery are monsters of the same family, but 
war is the oldest. Were it not foP war there 
would be no slavery, and both are equally 
inconsistent with the precepts of our Saviour, 
who has commanded us to " do to others as we 
would that others should do to us," and to " do 
good unto all men as we have opportunity ; 



...'j 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 35 

precepts totally incompatible with war and 
slavery. 

Alexander next marched into Caria, in order 
to lay siege to Halicarnassus. This city was 
extremely difficult of access, had been strongly 
fortified, and was defended by a very brave and 
numerous garrison, with Memnon, a Greek, the 
chief general of Darius at its head. They 
burnt the engines and battering rams of Alex- 
ander, and, when the assailants had battered 
down one wall, with great loss of men, they 
found another had been built up behind it ; so 
that the defenders were able, from their high 
towers, to shoot arrows against the enemy and 
destroy great numbers of them. Memnon, 
finding- that he could not much longer hold out, 
took his army and the inhabitants, with their 
riches, on board his fleet and departed, leaving 
only the citadel well stored with provisions with 
some "brave soldiers. Alexander, deprived of 
his plunder, destroyed the city and besieged 
the citadel and marched off with the remainder 
of his soldiers. In what does the hero here 
differ from a highway man. The inhabitants 
of Halicarnassus had never injured him. It is 
true, they were brave and warlike, and probably 
had served other cities as Alexander served 
them, but this is no excuse for him, who made 
war upon them for his own fame and for plunder. 
It is strange, that men will praise such charac- 
ters. They hang a single robber, but, when a 
man robs a nation, he is called a god. 

After these exploits, many of the kings and 



36 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

petty princes of Asia Minor submitted to the 
hero without fighting. Before he went into 
winter quarters, he allowed all his soldiers who 
had been married the year before, to return to 
Macedonia and spend the winter with their 
wives, a practice conformable to the law of 
Moses, (Deut. 24 : 5.) and which Aristotle prob- 
ably learned from some Jew, and recommended 
to his pupil. It does not appear, that the Greeks 
were allowed the same privilege, and, it is 
probable that many a Macedonian bride had 
become a widow only to add praise to the name 
of Alexander. Whilst he was busily preparing 
for the next campaign, an attempt was made upon 
his life by the treachery and corruption of an 
officer of his army, but it was discovered and 
prevented from taking effect. 

The campaign opened very early, and leaving 
the sea coast, which had submitted to him, he 
marched into the interior ; and, having settled 
the affairs of Cilicia and Pamphylia, he marched 
to Celenae, a city of Phrygia, which capitulated 
after sixty days. Thence he marched to Gor- 
dian, the capital of Phrygia, where he desired 
to see the famous Gordian knot, which fastened 
the yoke of a chariot to the beam ; and one of 
the oracles had predicted, that the man who 
should untie that knot, would conquer Asia. 
Alexander tried to untie the knot, but could 
not do it ; and he cut it with his sword. This 
was called a great exploit ; because it was done 
by a hero with a sword, but, if a commom sailor 
should cut a knot with his jack knife, because 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 37 

he could not undo it, he would be called a 
great lubber by his ship-mates, and, if on board 
a man of war, would run the risk of getting a 
dozen lashes into the bargain. " There is but 
a step from the sublime to the ridiculous," said 
Bonaparte. 

Darius began to perceive his danger, and set 
out to defend his empire in person, and Memnon 
advised him to attack Macedonia and thus 
render evil for evil. This would have brought 
on the Macedonians similar evils to what they 
were inflicting on the Persians, and the Mace- 
donians would be acting on the defensive, and 
the Persians would have been called the aggres- 
sors. Thus war, from being defensive, often 
becomes offensive ; and it is difficult to recon- 
cile either with the precepts of the gospel, 
according to the texts already quoted. But this 
plan of Darius was defeated by the death of 
Memnon. 

From Gordian, Alexander marched into Paph- 
lagonia and Cappadocia, and passed through a 
very dangerous defile, where only four soldiers 
could march abreast, from which the Persians, 
left to defend it, fled in a panic ; and the in- 
vaders reached Tarsus, the birth-place of St. 
Paul, just as the Persians were setting fire to it. 
Here Alexander, while covered with sweat and 
dust, plunged into the river Cydnus, remarkable 
for its coldness, and was so suddenly chilled 
that his life was despaired of. He urged the 
physicians to attempt a speedy, though violent 
cure, for he said, that " he did not so much 
4* 



38 THE HERO OF MACEDOl* 

wish to live, as to fight." A speech more 
becoming a wild beast than a man. 

From this sickness he was recovered by the 
bold and violent prescription of his physician, 
who saved the king's life at the risk of his own, 
for, if the hero had died from the effects of the 
medicine or from the want of it, his death would 
have been attributed to a bribe of 1000 talents, 
which Darius had offered to whomsoever should 
destroy Alexander, and which was known to 
him before he took the medicine. This con- 
duct of Darius is justly detested by all men, 
but open violence is no more justified by the 
gospel, than secret treachery. Earth makes 
distinctions which heaven rejects, and he who 
murders by the sword, will find no more favour 
with God, than he who murders by poison. 

In the mean time, Darius was marching to 
meet Alexander with a vast army of his slaves, 
badly armed and disciplined, but gorgeously 
apparelled : and he thought to conquer by his 
very numbers. But, his gold was but a bribe 
to the enemy to fight for it, while his' own 
soldiers had nothing to fight for, but to support 
a despot. A Greek in his army, counselled 
him to take the gold off from his soldiers and 
with it hire other soldiers to fight for him. 
With that gold, he could have hired Greeks to 
fight against Greeks, for then, as now, men 
could be hired for money to fight, even against 
their own countrymen. But Darius, trusting 
to his numbers and inflated with pride, rejected 
this counsel and ordered the man who gave it 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 39 

to immediate execution. How could such a 
despot expect to have faithful friends ? Thus 
Darius rushed on his own ruin, and, instead of 
awaiting the enemy in the plains of Assyria, 
where he was encamped, and where his vast 
body of cavalry could have acted to advantage, 
he went to meet Alexander in the mountains, 
where his numbers could be of no use to him. 

Darius began his march like a procession 
after a victory, w r ith a long train of princesses, 
concubines, women, eunuchs, and domestics of 
both sexes, beside which, he had an army of 
.600,000 men gorgeously clothed and equipped, 
among which were 30,000 Greek mercenaries, 
who were willing to cut the throats of their 
countrymen for gold, or the love of praise, a 
passion in itself as mean and as selfish as avarice, 
and as contrary to the precepts of the gospel. 
These Greeks warned him of his danger of 
going to meet the invaders in the mountains. 
This wise advice he rejected, for he seems to 
have been bent on his destruction. According 
to an ancient proverb, " whom God determines 
to destroy he first infatuates."- He however, 
sent his treasures to Damascus, but retained his 
retinue and pursued his march. 

Alexander was not less anxious to meet 
Darius, and the armies met near Issus. Having 
set the battle in array, he made a speech to his 
army, addressing each part according to that 
lust or passion for which it was distinguished, 
and from which the apostle informs us wars and 
fightings come. He addressed himself to the 



40 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

love of praise and of money in the Macedonians ; 
to the passion of hatred and revenge in the 
Greeks against the Persians, because 150 years 
before they had invaded Greece ; to the Ulyrians, 
Thracians, and other barbarous nations in his 
pay, he promised the rich plunder and fertile 
fields of the Persians, instead of the barren and 
icy mountains from which they came, 

The fight then began. The invaders had to 
cross a small rivulet, in order to attack the 
Persians. Alexander longed for nothing so 
much as to kill Darius with his own hand, but 
Darius fled from the battle, and most of the 
Persians followed him. The Greek mercenaries 
in his pay fought more bravely against their 
own countrymen, and the battle was for some 
time doubtful, but, at length, the mercenaries 
retired in good order, and a great proportion of 
them saved themselves, 8000 of whom, marching 
to the sea coast, siezed the vessels they found 
there and returned to Greece, Darius "left his 
heavy chariot and fled, first on foot and then 
on horseback. Alexander tired of pursuing 
him returned and captured t\i e Persian camp, 
where he made prisoners of the whole family of 
Darius. The invaders lost but few men ac- 
cording to their own account, though vast 
numbers of the Persians fell. Alexander himself 
was slightly wounded. 

The victor made a great feast to his officers 
the same night, during which they v/ere sur- 
prised by the great wailing and lamentations of 
the mother and wife and other ladies belonging 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 41 

to the court of Darius, who were in a neigh* 
bouring tent, and who had just, heard that 
Darius had been killed, which was not the case. 
It is said, that, on this occasion Alexander shed 
tears. This may be true, he might have been 
naturally humane and compassionate, and, had 
not the love of glory led him astray, he might 
have been a blessing, instead of a curse, to the 
age he lived in. It is true, that he treated the 
captives with great moderation and kindness, 
for he had not yet acquired that brutal ferocity 
which a long course of blood-shed and carnage 
naturally inspires. 

The praise so freely bestowed on Alexander 
for his humane treatment of the family of Darius, 
always appeared to me to be a disgrace cast on 
the military profession. Is the highwayman to 
be honored if he spares the life of the traveller, 
or the midnight robber for not burning the house 
he has plundered ? Was it to be expected, that 
these ladies, whose only crime was the love 
they bore to an unfortunate father, son, and 
husband, was to be subjected to the brutal lust 
of the conqueror, and, after having been treated 
with indignities worse than death, be abandoned 
to a lawless soldiery. How black must be that 
character, whose abstinence from such crimes 
is reckoned as a virtue ! I allow that this 
forbearance was singular ; and that what are 
called the rights of victory, allow of the most 
horrid and unnameable crimes. " Beauty and 
booty" is often the watch-word with the soldier, 
but, when we praise a man for not acting like 



42 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

a scoundrel, we pay but a small compliment to 
his general character, or our own sense of 
virtue. If Alexander must have been a con- 
queror in order to obtain the praise of the world, 
he need not have warred with women. If he 
had sent to Darius his wife and family, it would 
not have dimmed his glory. But it is said that 
reasons of state might have prevented this line 
of conduct. I know, that reasons of state are 
often brought forward to excuse cruelty and 
villainy, but, if reasons of state will excuse his 
cruelty in keeping these ladies in captivity, it 
might have been reasons of state which made 
him so lenient and forbearing. What then 
becomes of his wonderful virtue ? 



CHAPTER IV. 

Siege of Tyre. 

Immense treasures fell into the hands of 
Alexander, with which he could hire as many 
soldiers as he wanted. With money he could 
get men and with men he could get money. 
Most of the cities of Syria surrendered at the 
approach of the conqueror, many of which were 
glad of the opportunity of throwing off the 
Persian yoke, for, when a city or a kingdom is 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 43 

conquered, it often weakens the conqueror by 
taking the first opportunity to rebel. 

The famous city of Tyre, however, trusting 
to its strong position and high walls, held out 
against the invaders, for it was independent of 
the king of Persia. Alexander had asked only 
the permission to enter their walls to sacrifice 
to the Tyrian Hercules, but the Tyrians had no 
confidence in his faith and refused him. Never- 
theless, when he advanced towards the city to 
subdue it, the Tyrians sent out an embassy 
with presents for him and refreshments for his 
army. They said they were willing to have 
him for their friend, but not for their master. 
A man of a truly great mind would have ad- 
mired the conduct and the answer of the Tyrians; 
but our hero had rather be famous for his con- 
quests than for his justice or humanity, and 
resolved to conquer the city. This shows that, 
if mankind praise only those actions which are 
truly great and good, those who love praise 
would perform such actions to obtain it. But 
alas ! the world has praised power and might 
more than it has the right use of them, and thus 
those who love glory have been the scourges of 
their race. But the Bible teaches us, that 
" righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin, is a 
reproach to any people." 

Tyre is often mentioned in the Bible. It 
was situated on an island of the sea, half a mile 
from the main land, and surrounded by a strong 
wall 150 feet high. Carthage was a colony of 
Tyre, and was, at this time, a great nation, and 



44 THE HERO OF MACEBON 

offered to assist in resisting the invader. Every 
preparation was made to repel the assault. It 
was in vain, for God had decreed the fall of 
Tyre, and used Alexander as the means. Tyre 
had never injured him, but, as he had deter- 
mined on conquering all the world, whether 
friends or enemies, and to carry blood-shed and 
desolation wherever he was resisted, he was 
unwilling to leave Tyre her liberty. If he 
could conquer Tyre and obtain her fleet, he 
thought he could subdue Cyprus and Egypt 
also, which he was determined to do, though he 
had nothing to reproach them with. Hence it 
appears, that it was the love of conquest and 
not the desire to avenge Greece which had 
induced him to invade Asia. The ostensible 
causes of war are seldom the real causes, which 
are kept secret in the hearts of kings and 
statesmen. Napoleon imitated the conduct of 
Alexander, for he invaded Malta, though at 
peace with him, to facilitate his invasion of 
Egypt, though, at the same time, he was pro- 
fessing peace and amity to the Turkish govern- 
ment, and men called Christian have applauded 
him for it. 

Alexander had a difficult task to subdue 
Tyre, and finding it would be an arduous work 
was desirous to come to terms with the Tyrians, 
for which reason he sent them ambassadors, 
whom they basely murdered. They probably 
justified themselves on the principle of retaliation 
and revenge, a principle from which all those 
wars which are called justifiable proceed ; but 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 45 

which is entirely contrary to the principles of 
the gospel. Thus we see that, even in the most 
justifiable wars, unjustifiable means are resorted 
to, and it may be safely said there was. never 
yet a war carried on, which did not violate the 
principles of the gospel on both sides. This 
vile conduct of the Tyrians enraged Alexander, 
and he set about the work of destruction in 
good earnest, and undertook to carry a vast 
mole, or wharf, from the main land, the materi- 
als of which were furnished from the ruins of 
Old Tyre, on the continent, and the lofty cedars 
of Lebanon. This was a stupendous work, and 
caused great labor and fatigue to his soldiers, 
but what will not men do to destroy their fellow 
creatures, when they are blinded by revenge 
and a love of glory ? 

The Tyrians opposed this work with all their 
might, sending boats to annoy the besiegers 
with sling-stones, arrows, and darts. The 
assailants then raised great towers of wood to 
defend their works, but they were burnt by the 
fire ships sent by the Tyrians. When the mole 
was nearly completed, there arose a great storm 
and overwhelmed it, so that a great part of it 
was washed away or sunk. Alexander now de- 
bated with himself, whether he should not raise 
the siege, but a superior Power, whose instru- 
ment he was, though he did not know nor 
acknowledge Him, had decreed the fall of Tyre. 

Alexander, having money enough, could hire 
as many gallies and soldiers as he desired, and 
determined to attack Tyre by sea. Many sailors 
5 



46 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

who had been fighting for Darius, now joined 
the invader with their gallies and 4,000 fresh 
troops came over from Greece to fight for him. 
The fleet being ready, Alexander made an 
attack by sea, which diverted the attention of 
the besieged, while the army carried on the 
mole, which was, at length, completed, and 
towers were erected with warlike engines on 
them ; and battering rams were brought against 
the walls. 

At this critical juncture, the Carthaginians 
sent ambassadors to Tyre, to inform them that 
they could send them no succor, being en- 
gaged themselves in a war at home. The 
Tyrians, being yet masters of the sea, sent their 
women and children and precious effects to 
Carthage, and fearing their brazen god, Apollo, 
would desert to the invaders, they chained his 
statue to the altar of Hercules. When Jehovah 
departs from a nation, it is given over to des- 
truction, therefore our greatest safety lies in 
doing such things as are well pleasing in his 
sight, for his protection is better than walls of 
brass, but the true God had given up Tyre to 
be destroyed, and her brazen divinity could not 
save her. 

After almost incredible hardships and great 
loss of lives on both sides, Tyre was, at length, 
taken. The conqueror gave orders for killing 
all the inhabitants, except such as fled to the 
temples, and those who were only old men and 
children. But 2000 men remaining after the 
soldiers had been glutted with slaughter, the 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 47 

hero had as many crosses erected on the sea 
shore and ordered these brave men to be cruci- 
fied — a vast labour for the victorious army, 
and a horrid instance of barbarity. The other 
prisoners amounted to 30,000, which, both 
natives and strangers, were sold into perpetual 
slavery. Some say, the brave are never cruel. 
Where were there ever braver men than Alex- 
ander and his army ? and when did conquerors 
ever display more cold blooded barbarity 
and cruelty, equalled only by the most ferocious 
savages of the American wilderness? Yet 
Alexander is called " the great," and his soldiers 
heroes ! 

Thus fell Tyre, according to the prophecies 
recorded in the word of God, see Ezekiel 26, 
27, 28 chapters. Tyre had rejoiced at the fall 
of Jerusalem, and had bought the prisoners 
which were sold. Therefore the Lord said to 
Ezekiel, " Son of man, because that Tyrus hath 
said against Jerusalem, 4 Aha ! she is broken 
that was the gates of the people : she is turned 
unto me, I shall be replenished now she is laid 
waste,' therefore, thus saith the Lord' God, 
Behold I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will 
cause many nations to come up against thee, as 
the sea causeth his waves to come up, and they 
shall destroy the walls of Tyrus and break 
down her towers : 1 will also scrape her dust 
from her, and make her like the top of a rock. 
It shall be a place for the spreading of nets 
in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, 
saith the Lord God, and it shall become a spoil 



48 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

to the nations." (Ezek. 26 : 2-5.) This proph- 
ecy has been literally accomplished, for though 
Alexander, after he had utterly destroyed the 
city, recolonized it again, and boasted that he 
was the founder of a city which he had destroy- 
ed, yet it lay in comparative obscurity for 
seventy years, according to the prophecy related 
in Isaiah, 23d chapter, in which the fall of Tyre 
is predicted. This, " the Lord of hosts hath 
purposed, to stain the pride of all glory, and to 
bring into contempt all the honorable of the 
earth," (verse 9th.) " And it shall come to 
pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten 
seventy years, according to the days of one 
king ; after the end of seventy years, shall Tyre 
sing as an harlot," (verse 15.) Tyre is now 
but a fishing village — " a place for spreading 
of nets in the midst of the sea." 



• 



CHAPTER V. 



Jerusalem saved by pacific measures Prophecies of Daniel 

relating to Alexander. 

Darius now sought to make terms with 
Alexander, and offered him a large part of his 
empire, together with immense sums of money, 
but he little thought whom he had to deal with. 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 49 

Great conquerors value money only as the means 
of conquest. Alexander had already money 
enough, it was fame and praise that he coveted, 
a passion more insatiable than avarice. He 
was determined, therefore, to plunder Darius of 
all his remaining wealth, and to take his king- 
dom from him likewise, and to kill or reduce 
him to slavery : not because Darius had ever 
injured him, but to get praise, How strange 
that men in their senses should applaud such 
wicked robberies, as contrary to common hon- 
esty, as they are to the word of God ! 

From Tyre, Alexander marched to Jerusalem, 
determined to destroy it because the Jews did 
not send him provisions while he was besieging 
Tyre, as the Samaritans had done. In this 
imminent danger, Jaddua the high priest, 
seeing himself exposed with all the inhabitants 
to the wrath of the conqueror, had recourse to 
the protection of the Almighty, gave orders for 
the offering up of public prayers to implore his 
assistance, and made sacrifices. And when 
Alexander approached the city, he caused flow- 
ers to be scattered in the streets, and set open 
the gates, and went in his pontifical robes, with 
all the priests, dressed also in their sacred vest- 
ments, and all the rest of the citizens clothed 
in white, to meet him. The Syrians and Phoe- 
nicians who were in his army were persuaded 
that his wrath was so great, that he would 
certainly punish the high priest after an exem- 
plary manner, and destroy the city. Alexander 
was struck at the sight of the high priest, in 
5* 



50 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

whose mitre on his forehead a golden plate was 
fixed, on which the name of God was written. 
The moment the king perceived the high priest, 
he advanced towards him with an air of the 
most profound respect, bowed his body, adored 
the august name upon his front, and saluted 
him who wore it with religious veneration. All 
the spectators were seized with inexpressible 
surprise, they could scarcely believe their own 
eyes, and did not know how to account for a 
sight so contrary to their expectations. 

Parmenio was much astonished, and asked 
the king for an explanation, who said, that he 
had seen, in a dream, while at home, this very 
man, inviting him to cross the Hellespont, and 
assuring him that God would give him the 
victory over the Persians, and that the moment 
he saw him, he knew him to be the same man. 
Having thus answered Parmenio, he embraced 
the high priest and all his brethren, and walking 
in the midst of them, he arrived at Jerusalem, 
where he caused sacrifices to be offered to God 
in the temple, after the manner prescribed by 
the high priest, who showed him the prophecies 
of Daniel which predicted him. 

Among the many wonderful prophecies of 
Daniel concerning the empire of the world, I 
shall select only those which have a particular 
bearing on the destinies of the hero, for, though 
I might use the others to great advantage in 
this place, it would take up too much room, and 
make my book too large for a Sabbath-school 
library, I should, however, advise the reader to 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 51 

consult the whole book of Daniel with Scott's 
commentaries. 

In the first chapter of Daniel, he says, " I 
saw in my vision by night, and behold the four 
winds of heaven strove upon the great sea, and 
four great beasts came up, one diverse from 
another/' (verse 2, 3.) This represents the 
origin of the four great empires which were to 
govern the ancient world. A dreadful, but too 
real image, for empires rise out of noise and 
confusion, they subsist in blood and slaughter, 
they exercise their power with violence and 
cruelty, they think it glorious to carry ruin and 
desolation into all places, but yet, in spite of 
their utmost efforts, they are subject to continual 
vicissitudes and unforeseen destruction. 

The prophet then relates more particularly 
the character of each of these empires. " The 
first was like a lion and had eagle's wings, I 
beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and 
it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand 
upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was 
given to it," (verse 4.) This was the Chaldean 
empire. " And behold another beast, a second 
like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one 
side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it, 
between the teeth of it, and they said thus unto 
it, arise devour much flesh," (verse 5.) This 
was the empire of the Medes and Persians. 
" After this, I beheld, and lo, another like a 
leopard, which had upon the back of it four 
wings of a fowl : the beast had also four heads, 
and dominion was given unto it," (verse 6.) 



53 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

This is the emblem of the Grecian or Macedo- 
nian empire erected by Alexander. The leopard 
being very swift and fierce, represented the 
ferocious character of its founder. The wings 
represented the swiftness with which he moved, 
and the four heads the four kingdoms into which 
his empire was divided after his death, viz. 
Egypt, Syria, Macedonia, and Thrace. These 
were the four heads of the beasts ; and dominion 
was given to them until this empire was destroy- 
ed by the Roman empire, represented by the 
" fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong 
exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth," 
(verse 7.) 

The character and success of Alexander are 
more particularly foretold in the 8th chapter of 
Daniel, 3d verse, and following, " Behold there 
stood, before the river, a ram which had two 
horns, and the two horns were high, but one 
was higher than the other, and the higher came 
up last. I saw the ram pushing northward and 
southward, so that no beast might stand before 
him, neither was there any that could deliver 
out of his hand, but he did according to his 
will and became great." The kingdom of 
Media and Persia, before represented by a vora- 
cious bear, was, on this occasion, shown to 
Daniel, under the form of a ram with two horns, 
which signified the joint power of the Medes 
and Persians forming one monarchy. It was 
usual for the kings of Persia to wear a diadem 
like a ram's head, made of gold, and it is said, 
that rams' heads with horns one higher than 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 53 

the other, are still to be seen on the ruins of 
Persepolis. Persia lay to the east of Babylon, 
and the kings extended their conquests westward 
as far as the iEgean sea, to the north and west 
as far as the Caspian and Euxine sea, and to the 
south and south-west they conquered Egypt and 
several of the adjacent regions. 

The prophet continues, " and, as I was con- 
sidering, behold an he-goat came from the west 
on the face of the whole earth, and touched not 
the ground, and the goat had a notable horn 
between his eyes, and he came to the ram that 
had two horns, which I had seen standing 
before the river, and ran upon him in the fury 
of his power. And I saw him come close to the 
ram, and he was moved with choler against him, 
and smote the ram and brake his two horns, 
and there was no power in the ram to stand 
before him ; but he cast him down to the ground 
and stamped upon him, and there was none to 
deliver out of his hand. Therefore the he-goat 
waxed very great, and when he was strong, the 
great horn was broken, and for it came up four 
notable ones toward the four winds of heaven." 
By the he-goat, typified the kingdom of Mace- 
donia, which had been settled by Greeks, who, 
when they went to settle there, followed a flock 
of goats, as they had been directed by an oracle, 
and for that reason they called their chief city 
JEgeaB or goat's town, and they had a goat 
painted on their standards. The rapidity of 
Alexander's conquests, which in the other vision, 
was represented by wings, is what is here meant 



54 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

by the goat's not touching the ground. But 
the great horn was broken, which foretold the 
sudden death of Alexander ; and four notable 
ones came up in its room, which relates, like 
the four heads of the leopard in the other vision, 
to the four kingdoms into which his empire 
should be divided after his death. The remain- 
der of this chapter of Daniel relates to the suc- 
cessors of Alexander. 

The king was very much enraptured when 
he heard these great promises; I therefore con- 
clude, that he could not have understood them 
altogether, for, though they promised him great 
success^ it was to be of short continuance, for 
the great horn was to be broken, and, in the 
room of it, were to come up four notable horns. 
But, as he was yet young, he might have ex- 
pected to have four sons to be his successors 
to the great empire he was to acquire, which 
would be enough to give to each a " notable " 
kingdom. 

However this might have been, he was very 
much pleased with the Jews, and bade them 
ask what favor they would. Their answer 
was, that they requested to live according to 
the laws which their ancestors had left them, 
and to be exempted every seventh year from 
their usual tribute, as, according to their laws, 
they were directed to let their land lay fallow 
every seventh year, that it should enjoy its 
Sabbath. Alexander not only granted their 
request, but extended the same privileges to all 
the Jews who lived in Babylonia and Media, 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 55 

and said further, that, if any of them should be 
willing to serve under him, he would give them 
leave to follow their own way of worship. Upon 
which offer, great numbers enlisted. 

I will close this chapter with two reflections. 
First. God can defend his people without the 
aid of the sword. " He has the hearts of all 
men in his hand, and can turn them whitherso- 
ever he will, even as the rivers of water are 
turned. " The same God who could preserve 
Daniel in the lions' den, and the three children 
in the fiery furnace, can also preserve nations. 
Christians are too apt to forget the providence 
of God, and act as though every thing depended 
on second causes. Let them do his will, and 
they need "not fear what man can do to them." 

Second. After all the boasting of conquerors, 
they are but the instruments in the hands of 
God, to accomplish his purposes — the rods of 
his anger, which, after he has used, he breaks 
and casts into the fire. When God sees fit to 
punish the nations, he generally uses the worst 
men for that purpose. He has only to take off 
his restraints from their ferocious natures, and, 
like wild beasts, they fall upon God's enemies 
and tear them to pieces. He can open the 
gates of brass and overturn the counsels of 
Achitophel, and he can in mercy restrain his 
wrath, when he has punished his children for 
their sins. 



THE HERO OF MACEDON 



CHAPTER VI. 

Alexander takes Gaza and invades Egypt.... Visits the temple 
of Jupiter- Amnion. 

Alexander left Jerusalem to invade Egypt, 
and immediately marched to Gaza, which he 
found defended by a strong garrison, under the 
command of Betis, one of Darius's generals, who 
was determined to defend it to the last extremity ; 
and Alexander was two months before he was 
able to take it. Exasperated at its holding out 
so long, and his receiving two wounds, he was 
resolved to treat the governor, the inhabitants, 
and the soldiers with a savage barbarity, for he 
cut 10,000 men to pieces, and sold all the rest, 
with their wives and children, for slaves. When 
Betis, who was taken prisoner, was brought 
before our hero, fired with an insolent joy, he 
said to him, " Betis, thou shalt die the death 
thou desirest. Prepare, therefore, to suffer all 
those torments which revenge can invent." Betis, 
looking on the king not only with a firm but a 
haughty air, did not make the least reply to his 
menaces, at which the hero, more enraged than 
before at his disdainful silence, " Observe," 
said he, " 1 beseech you, that dumb arrogance. 
Has he bended the knee ? Has he spoken but 
one submissive word ? But I will conquer this 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 57 

obstinate silence, and will force groans from 
him if I can draw nothing else." Upon which 
he ordered a hole to be made through his heels, 
when a rope being put through them and this 
being tied to a chariot, he ordered his soldiers 
to drag Betis round the city till he died. He 
boasted his having, on this occasion, imitated 
Achilles, who, as Homer relates, caused the 
dead body of Hector to be dragged round the 
walls of Troy. 

Here we see the manner in which one hero 
can treat another. It shows us also the baleful 
effects which Homer's poems had on the mind 
of Alexander ; and the relation of the heroic 
achievements of Alexander himself are likely to 
have the same effect on others, when the poison 
is not accompanied with an antidote. 

As soon as the king had ended the siege of 
Gaza, he marched to Pelusium, where a great 
number of Egyptians had assembled to recognize 
him for their sovereign ; for the hatred these 
people bore the Persians, by whom they had 
been conquered, was so great, that they valued 
very little who should be their king, provided 
they could meet with a hero to rescue them 
from the insolence and indignity with which 
both they and their religion were treated by the 
Persians, so that Alexander easily subdued all 
Egypt. 

At Memphis, our hero formed the design of 

visiting the temple of Jupiter-Am mon, which 

was situated amid the sandy deserts of Lybia, 

and twelve days' journey from Memphis. Ham r 

6 



58 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

the son of Noah, first peopled Egypt after the 
flood, which is therefore called in scripture "the 
land of Ham." When idolatry began to gain 
ground in the world, and the descendants 
of Ham had extended their settlements to the 
few fertile spots in Lybia, he became the chief 
deity of these two countries, under the name of 
Ammon. A temple was built to his honor, on 
an oasis, a small fertile spot in the midst of a 
desert of sand, like an island in the ocean, 
which was about six miles wide. The Greeks 
called him Jupiter, and, in process of time, his 
two names were joined, and he was called 
Jupiter-Ammon. 

Alexander, having read in Homer and other 
fabulous authors, that most of their heroes were 
represented as sons of some god ; and as he 
wished, in every thing, to conform to what was 
written in the poems of Homer, which he took 
for his bible ; and, as he had set out to be a 
hero, he took a fancy to be thought the son of 
that sheep-headed god Jupiter-Ammom, whose 
image was carved with a ram's head instead of 
a man's. 

No one attempted to dissuade him, for, puffed 
up with his victories, he was above advice, and 
had the vanity and weakness to think, that he 
was more than mortal. The very difficulty and 
danger of undertaking a long journey over 
deserts of burning sand, with a large army, 
seemed to inspire him with a desire to accom- 
plish it, especially as he could not so well get 
himself owned by the god as his son, without 



m THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 59 

paying his personal respects, with a great retinue, 
to him, in his temple. 

He commenced his journey by sailing down 
the river Nile to the sea, where, finding a good 
situation for a city, and wishing to build one 
which should be called by his name, he ordered 
one to be laid out there, which still bears his 
name, and has done him more honor than all 
the victories he ever gained, for Alexandria is 
still a place of great wealth ancl commerce, and 
he is better known as its founder than he is as 
the victor at Issus and Arbela. When men 
can get honor by doing such things, it is won- 
derful that they do not prefer the building of a 
city to the destruction of one. 

Alexander had to go a journey of about 250 
miles to the temple of Jupiter- A mmon, and 
most of the way through sandy deserts. The 
soldiers were patient enough for the first two 
days of the march, before they arrived at the 
vast and dreary solitudes of shifting sand ; but, 
as soon as they found themselves in extensive 
plains covered with sands which sunk under 
their feet, they began to complain. Surrounded 
as with the sea, they gazed around as far as 
their sight could extend, to discover, if possible, 
some place which was inhabited, but all in vain, 
for they could not perceive so much as a single 
tree. To increase their calamity, the water 
they had brought, in their goat skins upon 
camels, now failed ; and there was not a single 
drop in all that sandy desert. They were there- 
fore reduced to the sad condition of dying, 



60 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

almost with thirst ; not to mention the danger 
they were in, every moment, of being buried 
under mountains of the drifting sand, which 
were sometimes raised suddenly by the winds, 
and which had formerly destroyed 50,000 of the 
troops of Cambyses. It is related by the super- 
stitious writers of antiquity, that crows conducted 
them to the temple, and that their thirst was 
relieved, in the last extremity, by a sudden 
shower of rain, After being several days in 
crossing the desert, at last, they arrived at the 
temple. 

The image which was worshipped in this 
temple, was made of emeralds and other precious 
stones, and from the head to the navel resembled 
a ram, as is said by Quintius Curtius. But 
probably his head only was like a ram, for he 
would have been a queer looking god, to have 
been full one half sheep. The king having 
come into the temple, where was also a famous 
oracle, the senior priest declared him to be the 
son of the said god. Alexander accepted this 
declaration with joy, and acknowledged Jupiter-. 
Amnion as his father. He asked the priest 
whether his father Jupiter had not allotted him 
the empire of the whole world ? To which the 
priest, who was as much a flatterer as the hero 
was vain-glorious, answered, that he should be 
monarch of the universe. Having ended his 
sacrifice, he offered magnificent presents to the 
god, and, of course, did not forget the priests, 
who had flattered him so highly. 

Swelled with the splendid title of the son of 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE G0SPEB. 61 

Jupiter, and fancying himself raised above the 
human species, the hero returned from his 
journey as from a triumph. From that time, in 
all his letters, his orders, and decrees, he always 
wrote in the following style : " Alexander, king, 
son of Jupiter-Ammon." 

What a ridiculous farce was here acted by 
the great hero ! which shows that a man may 
be a conqueror with very little common sense. 
What have we seen in Alexander which would 
bring him into comparison with a Newton, a 
Locke, an Edwards, or a Howard. Where we 
could find one Newton, we could find a thousand 
Alexanders. But there is this difference, that 
happily there can be only one Alexander at a 
time. Conquerors must be solitary, for they 
interfere with one another, while the greater 
the number of philosophers and philanthropists 
there are in the world at one time, the greater 
is each, for they assist one another. 



6* 



THE HERO OF MACEDON 



CHAPTER VII. 

Alexander pursues Darius Battle of Arbela Capture of 

Babylon, Susa and Persepolis .... Death of Darius. 

Having settled the affairs of his new conquest 
in Egypt, Alexander marched his army once 
more against Darius, who had endeavored to 
make peace with the invader, hut found nothing 
left for him but death or submission, though he 
had never given the hero any cause of offence 
before he invaded Persia. The invaders passed 
the great river Tigris by fording, which shows 
that what is called a great river in Asia, would 
only be called a rivulet in America. It is said 
that Darius again attempted to rid himself of 
his enemy by poison or assassination. When 
we hear these things related by an enemy, we 
should be slow to believe them, for all kinds of 
stratagems, deceptions and falsehoods are allow- 
ed in war, and it is not unlikely that Alexander 
caused these reports to be circulated, in order 
to justify his cruelty to Darius. He who lies 
adroitly against an enemy, is often considered 
as great a patriot as he who fights bravely, and 
if any one of the same party attempts to refute 
the falsehood, he is called an enemy to his 
country. It must be remembered, that our 
accounts of the invasion and conquest of Persia^ 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 63 

all come from the invaders and not from the 
Persians. 

Darius, however, though he had been twice un- 
successful in his pacific overtures, again attempted 
to conciliate Alexander, but the hero was deter- 
mined on the destruction of his prey, which he saw 
could not escape him, and he ordered Darius to be 
told that " the world would not permit two suns 
nor two sovereigns. Let him therefore choose, 
either to surrender to me to-day, or fight me 
to-morrow. " Was this true greatness, or was it 
pride ? Is it an example for a Christian youth 
to follow? Our Saviour said, " Blessed are the 
poor in spirit." " Blessed are the meek." 
" Blessed are the merciful." " Blessed are the 
peacemakers." But the world blesses a char- 
acter as opposite to this, as darkness is to light. 

The army of Darius was drawn up in battle 
array, on a plain at no great distance from the 
city of Arbela, whither Alexander marched to 
fight him, but encamped for the night in the 
same order in which he marched, and sent for a 
fortune-teller, to learn of him what should happen 
on the morrow, for he was very superstitious. 
The Persian army remained under arms all 
night, and were consequently very weary before 
day. It was ten times as great as Alexander's, 
but they were chiefly raw recruits and undisci- 
plined, forced into the service against their will, 
and ready to run away on the first attack, except 
a body of Greek mercenaries, whom Darius had 
hired to cut the throats of their countrymen. 
Alexander was again victorious, and Darius 



64 THE HERO OF MACEDOK 

barely escaped with his life. It is said, that 
the Persians lost 300,000 men in killed, besides 
prisoners, while the invaders lost but 1,200 : 
but these accounts are generally very much 
exaggerated, for, in order to get more glory to 
themselves, those who write the accounts of 
their own victories, usually rate the loss of their 
opponents much greater, and that of their own 
much less than the truth ; so that to " lie like a 
bulletin/ 5 has become a trite proverb. 

Darius, after his defeat, had rode towards the 
river Lycus ; after crossing it, several advised 
him to break down the bridges, because the 
enemy pursued him, but he made this generous 
answer, " That life was not so dear to him as 
to make him desire to preserve it by the de- 
struction of so many thousands of his subjects 
and faithful allies, who, by that means, would 
be delivered up to the mercy of the enemy : 
that they had as much right to pass over the 
bridge as their sovereign.' * 

A few days after the battle, Arbela surrender- 
ed to the hero, who found in it great spoil, but 
he was soon obliged to leave that place, on 
account of diseases which spread in his camp, 
occasioned by the stench of the dead bodies 
which covered the field of battle. No one, who 
has never seen a field of battle, can form any 
adequate idea of the horrors which it presents. 
The ancient historians thought so little of it, 
that, though they give us very minute accounts 
of the manner in which men were killed, they 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 65 

pass over the multitudes of slain with scarcely 
a single remark. 

The hero therefore marched away from the 
infected neighbourhood of Arbela, where it 
seems the bodies remained unburied, and where 
to the clangor of war succeeded a death-like 
silence, except where it was broken by the 
shrieks of the vulture and the howling of the 
wolves and jackalls, as they gnawed the putrid 
remains of what parents had cherished, friends 
esteemed, and women loved ; and this is glory. 

Alexander next marched to Babylon, which 
he entered in triumph, the Babylonians strewing 
the streets with flowers, and burning, on silver 
altars, incense and perfumes, and paying a sort 
of idolatrous worship to the conqueror. He 
staid longer there than he had in any other 
city, and his army gave themselves up to volup- 
tuousness. The people, even from what the 
heathens called a religious motive, abandoned 
themselves to pleasures and infamous excesses, 
nor did ladies, though of the highest quality, 
observe any decorum, or show the least reserve 
in their immoral actions, but gloried in them, 
so far were they from endeavoring to conceal 
them, or blushing at their enormity. Thus war 
always corrupts the morals of those engaged in 
it, and is frequently more fatal to the victors 
than the vanquished. 

Not yet content with his conquests, Alexander 
marched to Susa, where he took immense spoils. 
Here he found also a part of the plunder w T hich 
Xerxes had taken in Greece, which he sent 



66 THE HERO OF MACEDOI* 

back with many other presents to the cities of 
Greece, where he wished to be praised. He 
next subdued the Uxii, and marched for the 
pass of Susa, where he lost a considerable num- 
ber of men, in attempting to force a passage, 
but was enabled by a treacherous Greek in the 
pay of the king of Persia, who showed him a 
secret path up the mountains, to get above the 
garrison and kill them or put them to flight. 
Every man despises a traitor, but it is strange, 
that those who bribe him to betray, so far from 
being blamed, are praised for it. Why should 
it be so ? If a man receives stolen goods, we 
consider him as bad as the thief. If one man 
bribes another to perjure himself, we consider 
him guilty of the perjury equally with the other. 
He who hires an assassin, is as guilty of murder 
as the assassin himself. But, in war, all crimes 
are, not only tolerated, but, often applauded. 
Could a Christian be lawfully engaged in war 
and command an army, he would have but little 
chance of success against an infidel general, 
who would not scruple to use all means, how- 
ever sinful, unless he also put off the Christian 
character entirely, and condescended to use the 
same means. 

Alexander pursued his march towards Persia 
Proper, for the country he had already conquered 
was the ancient Media, though the inhabitants 
were called Persians, because subject to the 
king of Persia. Those who fell into his hands 
in this country were slaughtered in vast numbers. 
He ordered no quarters to be given, because ha 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 67 

thought, that such cruelty would be of service 
to his affairs. On his march he found 4000 
Greeks, who had been taken prisoners in the 
former wars between the Greeks and Persians, 
who had suffered all the torments which tyranny 
could invent. The hands of some had been 
cut off and the feet of others, and some had lost 
their noses and ears, and their enemies having 
branded their faces with barbarous characters, 
kept them for laughing stocks. Alas, how 
many evils are brought on the world by war ! 
which always was and still is the companion and 
brother of slavery. It is true, Christianity has 
done much to soften the ferocity of war, though 
it has been but little understood and less prac- 
tised ; but when it shall have its due influence 
on the hearts of men, it will banish both war 
and slavery from the world. Alexander treated 
these men very kindly, and distributed among 
them great sums of money : and gave them 
lands, for they had been from Greece so long, 
that they were unwilling to return. 

Alexander next marched to Persepolis, the 
capital of Persia, where he found immense 
spoils. The victorious soldiers here found 
money enough to satisfy their avarice, and 
began to kill the few inhabitants who remained, 
but were restrained by their general. On this 
occasion he made a great feast to his chief 
officers, which is the subject of an ode by Dry- 
den. After his guest had got much intoxicated, 
Thais, one of those infamous women who are 
generally found in camps, persuaded them to set 



68 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

fire to the magnificent palace of Xerxes. The 
king rose from the table, crowned with flowers, 
which was the custom of the Greeks at their 
feasts, and, with a torch in his hand, advanced 
to execute this mighty project. 



"Thais led the way, 
To light him to his prey, 
And, like another Helen, fired another Troy." 

Dkyden. 



The whole company followed him, breaking out 
into loud exclamations, like bacchanalians, or 
rather, like wild Indians, and, after singing and 
dancing, they surrounded the palace and set fire 
to it. These are what the world calls heroes* 
When the king became sober he was sorry for 
what he had done. 

The invader soon set out again in pursuit of 
Darius, who still fled, as he had but a small 
remnant of his army left, among whom were 
4000 Greek mercenaries, who remained faithful 
to him, probably fearing the resentment of Alexan- 
der, who was not likely to show them any mercy 
if they fell into his hands. But Bessus, one of the 
great officers of Darius, conspired with the others 
against him, bound him in chains, and laying him 
in a covered chariot, retreated towards Bactri- 
ana. His design was, if Alexander should 
pursue him, to save himself, by giving up 
Darius aliye into his hands, or to kill him and 
usurp the Persian crown, but finding himself 
betrayed by his own officers, Darius refused to 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 69 

fly any longer, and was killed by them, who 
then fled by different routes. He was found 
with his body run through with spears, lying in 
a chariot, and drawing near his end. He had, 
however, strength enough, before he died, to 
call for water, which was brought to him by a 
Macedonian soldier. He sent word to Alexan- 
der, thanking him for the kindness he had 
shown his mother and wife, and wishing him 
victory to revenge the execrable murder com- 
mitted on his person, as this was the common 
cause of kings. Alexander coming up a mo- 
ment after, seeing the dead body of Darius, 
wept bitterly. What are we to think of these 
tears of the hero ? were they real or affected ? 
tears of joy or of sorrow ? He had been at an 
immense expense and labor, and had exposed 
his life to rob Darius of his crown, and to kill 
him. He had sought to slay him with his own 
hand ; but had been prevented ; but now the 
deed was done, did he cry, like a spoiled child, 
because he could not have his will in doing it 
himself? Or did he see, in the fate of Darius, 
that which might be his own ? 

Darius was about fifty years old, and had 
reigned six, for he began to reign the same 
year with his implacable foe Alexander. He 
was a gentle and pacific prince, his reign having 
been unsullied with injustice or cruelty. He 
was pacific, however, from disposition and not 
from principle, and kept in subjection all those 
whom his ancestors had subdued, until they 
took advantage of Alexander's invasion to throw 
7 



70 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

off the Persian yoke, or rather exchange it for 
the Macedonian. In him the Persian empire 
ended, after having existed 209 years, computing 
from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

Rebellion in Greece ....Death of Agis .... Alexander marches into 
Parthia .... Subdues many nations .... Burns his plunder .... Puts 
Philotas and Parmenio to death .... Capture and death of Bessus. 

While these things were passing in Asia, 
tumults broke out in Greece and Macedonia, 
for it is not easy for one man to keep a great 
number of nations subdued under him. Mem- 
non, whom Alexander had sent into Thrace, 
rebelled, and Antipater, with whom the king 
had left the charge of Macedonia, marched 
thither to subdue him. But now the states of 
Greece, wishing to throw off the yoke of Alex- 
ander, the Lacedemonians revolted and drew 
after them almost all Peloponnesus. Antipater 
quickly returned from Thrace, attacked the 
Lacedemonians and defeated them, killing Agis 
their king. Alexander's known greediness of 
praise, and his desire to monopolize all to him- 
self, was such, that Antipater scarcely dared to 
inform his master of the victory. 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 71 

After the defeat and death of Darius, Alex- 
ander's soldiers thought they might then return 
home and enjoy their spoils and the fruits of 
their many victories, but they soon found their 
mistake, for Alexander was more greedy of 
praise than ever ; and was determined to lead 
them to new dangers and hardships, to get 
glory for himself. By a speech which he made 
to them, he so inflamed their minds with a love 
of military glory, that they forgot their wives 
and children and aged parents, and were willing 
to forsake their native country and follow the 
hero to the end of the world. 

Taking advantage of this excitement, the 
king marched over Parthia to Hyrcania, which 
submitted to his arms. He subdued also the 
Mardi, the Arii, the Dranae, the Archosi and 
several other nations. What these nations had 
done to Alexander to excite his anger does not 
appear. Probably they had given him no more 
offence than the traveller gives the highwayman. 
He wanted the glory of conquering them, and 
this was, with him, a sufficient reason for 
spreading death and desolation around ; causing 
the widow and the helpless to mourn and weep, 
and, like the demon of destruction, dipping his 
feet in the blood of the brave, and watering his 
path with tears, and for this men call him a 
hero ! 

Alexander, who in the beginning of his career 
had been temperate and abstemious, now gave 
himself up to luxury and debauchery of every 
kind, and revelled in sensuality. He laid aside 



72 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

the modest and plain dress of his native country, 
and adopted the luxurious dress, habits and 
manners of Persia. He required his soldiers, 
who had fought so bravely for his glory, and 
who had endured so many hardships to gain 
praise for him, to fall prostrate at his feet, like 
slaves, and adore him as a god. It is astonish- 
ing, to see what degradation soldiers are willing 
to submit to, when commanded by a victorious 
general. War introduced monarchy and slavery 
into the world. " The first king was a fortunate 
soldier." Nations readily surrender their liberty 
to a successful commander, and had rather be 
victorious slaves than peaceful freemen. One 
of the tyrants of Rome remarked, that " arms 
and laws do not flourish together." 

Alexander's soldiers began to perceive that 
they were losing their national character, and 
from conquerors were becoming slaves, that, 
instead of subduing Persia, they were themselves 
becoming Persians, and their own country but 
a province of the new empire. 

The king, knowing their disaffection, found 
no other way to put a stop to it, but by leading 
them on to fresh victories, but, as the army had 
accumulated a vast amount of rich plunder, 
which encumbered them, he was determined to 
get rid of it. Accordingly he had all his own 
plunder piled up in one vast heap and set fire 
to it with his own hands, and compelled his 
soldiers to do the same with theirs, so they lost, 
at once, the fruits of all their labors and hard- 
ships, and the reward of so many murders, with 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 73 

which they hoped to support themselves in old 
age, after their return home. Under these 
impressions a plot was laid by the king's own 
soldiers to destroy him ; but it was discovered 
and prevented : but Alexander became very 
jealous of two of his principal generals and chief 
counsellors, Parmenio and his son Philotas. He 
caused Philotas to be put on the rack, a most 
horrible instrument of torture, to make him 
confess. This diabolical machine was invented 
by tyrants to compel those whom they suspected, 
or feared, or envied, to accuse themselves or 
others, and the pain was so great that often 
innocent persons accused themselves or their 
nearest friends in order that their sufferings 
may be ended by death. 

Philotas, at first, manifested the utmost reso- 
lution and strength of mind, but, at last con- 
quered by pain, he confessed himself guilty, 
named several accomplices, and even accused 
his own father. According to the custom of 
the Macedonians, he was stoned to death, as 
were also several others. 

Tyrants are always jealous, and the king, 
fearing the resentment of Parmenio for the 
death of his son, sent one of that general's own 
particular friends to him, he being at a consid- 
erable distance from the army, and ignorant of 
the whole affair, to assassinate him, which this 
friend accomplished by stabbing him, with a 
dagger, while he was reading a forged letter, 
purporting to be from his son, Philotas, whom 
the hero had already put to death. So much 



74 THE HERO OP MACEDON 

for the friendship of camps. Parmenio was a 
greater man, both in peace and war, than Alex- 
ander, though not so fond of glory, and he had 
him assassinated, because he feared and envied 
him, though the veteran had served the hero's 
father, king Philip, and himself, during a long 
life, for he was now seventy years old. This is 
the gratitude of a hero. 

As might have been expected, this severity 
and cruelty caused great dissatisfaction in the 
army, and the king had the meanness to cause 
all the letters of the soldiers to their friends to 
be broken open, that he might know who were 
disaffected towards him. To prevent the effect 
of this discontent, Alexander set out in pursuit 
of Bessus and fresh victories, and great numbers 
of his soldiers died of fatigue, sufferings, and 
privations, without a battle. In their march 
through this country, which before was unknown 
to them, they arrived at a city inhabited by a 
colony of Greeks, from Miletus, whose ancestors 
had surrendered the treasures of a certain temple 
to Xerxes, when he invaded Greece. They 
received the hero with great joy. Alas ! they 
knew not the man, for he commanded his soldiers 
to surround the city, and, on a signal being 
given, every one in it was put to the sword, 
without distinction of age or sex, to punish them 
for what had been done by their forefathers 150 
years before. Thus it is always in war, that 
the innocent suffer for the guilty. 

As Bessus had betrayed his king Darius, so 
his own soldiers betrayed him, and he was 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 75 

seized and delivered bound into the hands of 
Alexander, who, a considerable time after, 
caused his ears and nose to be cut off, and then 
sent him to the mother of Darius to be further 
tormented, at her pleasure. She ordered him 
to be tied to the tops of four young trees, which 
were bent towards the body of Bessus, and 
when one of his limbs had been made fast to 
each, they were let go, and, springing into their 
natural position, tore him into four quarters. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Alexander invades Scythia.... Speech of the Scythian ambassa- 
dors .... Alexander receives a reinforcement from Europe.... 
Kills Clitus his friend .... Has Calistiienes, the philosopher, put 
to death. 

As Alexander had now conquered and over- 
run all Media and Persia, one would think that 
he had now no longer any pretence for further 
warfare, but he wished to conquer kingdoms 
which he had never before heard of, and pressed 
forward to discover new countries to conquer, 
and new nations to destroy. Having been 
wounded by an arrow in the leg by the barba- 
rians, he was carried in a litter, and the noble 
and brave Greek youths in his army contended 



76 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

for the honor of bearing him. Most of the 
nations submitted to him. These he spared, 
but destroyed those who fought for liberty and 
independence, burning their cities and putting 
the inhabitants to the sword. He built another 
city, near the river Iaxarthes, which he also 
called Alexandria, for he was desirous to leave 
monuments of his name in the conquered terri- 
tory ? and certainly the founder of a city is more 
entitled to praise than the destroyer of it. 

The king now resolved to invade Scythia, 
and made preparations to cross the Iaxarthes 
with his army ; when every thing was ready for 
the passage, ambassadors arrived from Scythia, 
the eldest of whom, according to Quintus Cur- 
tius, made a speech, from which I extract the 
following passages. ' 

" Had the gods given thee a body proportion- 
ate to thy ambition, the whole universe would 
have been too little for thee. With one hand 
thou wouldst have touched the east, and with 
the other the west, and not satisfied with this, 
thou wouldst follow the sun and know where he 
hides himself. Such as thou art, thou yet as- 
pirest after what it will be impossible for thee 
to attain. Thou crossest over from Europe to 
Asia, and when thou shalt have subdued all 
the race of men, then thou wilt make war against 
rivers, forests, and wild beasts. 

" What have we to do with thee ? We never 
set foot in thy country. May not those who 
live in woods be allowed to live without knowing 
who thou art, and whence thou earnest ? We 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 77 

will neither command over nor submit to any 
man. And that thou mightest be sensible what 
kind of people the Scythians are, know, that 
we received from heaven, as a rich present, a 
yoke of oxen, a ploughshare, a dart, a javelin, 
and a cup. These we make use of both with 
our friends and against our enemies. To our 
friends we give corn, which we procure by the 
labor of our oxen ; with them we offer wine to 
the gods in the cup, and with regard to our 
enemies, we combat them, at a distance with 
our arrows, and near at hand with our javelins, 

" But thou, who boastest thy coming to ex- 
tirpate robbers, thou, thyself, art the greatest 
robber upon earth. Thou hast plundered all 
nations thou overcamest. Thou hast possessed 
thyself of Lydia, invaded Syria, Persia and Bac- 
triana, thou art forming a design to march as 
far as India, and now thou comest hither to sieze 
upon our herds of cattle. The great possessions 
thou hast, only make thee covet what thou hast 
not. 

" If thou art a god, thou oughtest to do good 
to mortals, and not deprive them of their pos- 
sessions. If thou art a mere man, reflect always 
on what thou art. They whom thou shalt not 
molest will be thy true friends, the strongest 
friendships being contracted between equals, 
but do not imagine that those whom thou con- 
querest can love thee, for there is no such thing 
as friendship between a master and his slave, 
and a forced peace is soon followed by a war. 
But do not think that the Scythians will take an 



78 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

oath in their concluding an alliance. Such 
cautions as these, do, indeed become Greeks, 
who sign their treaties and call upon the gods to 
witness them ; but with regard to us, our 
religion consists in being sincere, and in keeping 
the promises we have made. Consider, there- 
fore, whether thou wilt have us for thy friends, 
or enemies," 

The king, it seems, was but little moved by 
this patriotic speech of the Scythians, but 
crossed the river, attacked them, put them to 
flight, and made a great many prisoners, whom 
he dismissed without ransom, to show that it 
was not animosity, but the love of praise which 
had prompted him to make war against so val- 
iant a nation. This love of applause is the most 
abundant source of war. It is therefore evident, 
that, if men withheld their praise for such cold- 
blooded and unprovoked murders, they would 
cease. It is astonishing that Christian teachers 
will continue to put books into the hands of their 
young pupils, which inflame this love of praise 
and other unchristian feelings, and that such 
characters as Alexander, Caesar, and Frederic 
the Great, are proposed for their imitation. 

The king continued his victorious career, 
subduing nations and shedding oceans of blood, 
to obtain the praises of mankind, which unfortu- 
nately for the peace of the world, he was able 
to secure by the same means as would consign 
a private individual to the gallows. He also, 
about this time, received another reinforcement 
of 16,000 Greeks and Macedonians, who left 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 79 

their families and their country to follow the 
fortunes of the hero. 

Alexander next besieged and took a very 
strong fort, by a military stratagem, which show- 
ed how devoted his soldiers were to him, and 
how willing to shed their blood to increase his 
glory. The defenders of the fort surrendered 
at discretion, trusting to his clemency ; but 
they trusted to their sorrow, for he had them all 
scourged with rods and then crucified. This 
is the way which one brave man sometimes 
serves another. Courage is an excuse for every 
crime, and covers a multitude of sins, but not in 
the same manner that charity does. 

The hero had long been in the habits of in- 
temperance and debauchery, which now grew 
upon him. At a drunken revel, being heated 
with wine, he began to extol himself to the skies, 
and depreciate the exploit of his father, when 
Clitus, one of his oldest generals, who had 
served under his father, began to praise the deeds 
of Philip, and even went so far as to defend 
Parmenio, and reminded the king of his having 
himself saved his life at the battle of the Grani- 
cus. Other words ensued, and the hero, in a 
rage, laid Clitus dead at his feet, for which rash 
action he immediately expressed great sorrow. 
But some of the Macedonians, those conquerors 
of the world, had the meanness to excuse the 
act of Alexander, and to assert, that the will of 
the prince is the supreme law of the state. Men 
may be brave and courageous warriors, and yet 



80 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

abject slaves, both to their own passions and to 
the will of a tyrant. 

In order to divert his mind and still the re- 
proaches of conscience for the murder of Clitus, 
the king set himself in motion, and invaded the 
country called Gabaza, where his army suffered 
from a violent hail storm, and a thousand of 
them perished with the cold. Similar calami- 
ties often befal great armies, for they cannot 
easily be put under cover. Napoleon suffered in 
the same way, in his invasion of Russia, whither 
he went with a vast army, in imitation of Alex- 
ander, for he too was a great hero, and wished 
to conquer the world. In one night he lost 
70,000 horses and many thousands of men, 
whose dead bodies bred a pestilence in his army. 

The king next invaded the country of the 
Sacae, which he overrun and laid waste, and 
then married Roxana, the daughter of one of 
the conquered kings, which very much displeas- 
ed the Macedonians, but so far were they from 
daring to show their resentment, they even 
applauded him. He now set out to conquer 
India, for he had heard of its immense wealth, 
and, in imitation of the manners of that country, 
he adorned the arms of his soldiers with gold 
and silver. But, before he entered on this cam- 
paign, he resolved not only to be called a god, 
but believed to be the son of Jupiter, and to be 
worshipped as a god by his soldiers. 

As Alexander commenced all great affairs 
with feasting and drinking, he made a great 
feast, and after drinking with his guests, retired 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 81 

from table, that his flatterers, according to a pre- 
vious arrangement, might have an opportunity 
to set him up for a god. Cleon led the way in 
this absurd and ridiculous affair, and made a 
speech in favor of worshipping him as a god. 
Calisthenes, a plain, blunt man, and a philoso- 
pher, alone opposed Cleon. The hero, who 
was behind a curtain, and heard all the conver- 
sation, resolved to destroy Calisthenes for his 
honesty, and a plot having been discovered 
against the life of the king, for tyrants are al- 
ways in danger, he seized this opportunity to re- 
venge the affront put on his pride, and had 
Calisthenes tortured to death, though innocent 
of every thing but speaking the truth. After 
this, every one of these brave men was afraid to 
speak the truth, and the conqueror was sur- 
rounded with servile flatterers and worshippers. 
The murder of Calisthenes is blamed, even by 
those who applaud the conquests of Alexander ; 
but, had he any more right to kill and destroy 
millions, than he had to murder an individual ? 
Men make distinctions which God rejects : 
thousands whom he had killed in battle were as 
innocent as Calisthenes. 



82 THE HERO OF MACEDON 



CHAPTER X. 

Alexander enters India.... Defeats Poms.... Prepares to pass the 
Ganges ....His soldiers refuse to follow.... Sails down the Indus 
to the ocean. 

It was an excess of pride and vanity which 
made Alexander desire to conquer India and 
to extend his Own power and glory. It was not 
for the good of his country, but principally be- 
cause he had read, in the ancient fables of 
Greece, that Bacchus and Hercules, both sons 
of Jupiter, as he also wished to be thought, had 
extended their conquests thus far. These Gre- 
cian fables have caused a vast amount of misery 
in the world, and it would be well for Christians 
to banish them from their schools. 

Conquests such as these constitute the glory 
and merit of heroes, and many people, dazzled 
by a false splendor, still admire in Alexander 
a ridiculous desire of rambling up and down in 
the world, of disturbing the tranquillity of nations 
who were not bound to him by any obligations, 
of treating all those as enemies who would not 
acknowledge him for their sovereign, and of 
extirpating such as should presume to defend 
their liberties, their possessions, and their lives, 
against an unjust invader, who came from the 
ends of the earth, to attack them without the 
least shadow of reason. 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 83 

When Alexander entered India, many of the 
petty princes came to make their submission to 
him, saying that he was the third son of Jupiter, 
who had entered their country, which flattery 
pleased the hero very much, and he spared 
their cities. But other cities resisted and hired 
mercenaries, who defended the cities that hired 
them with much vigor, and the king suffered 
not a little from their exertions. The first city 
he took, he ordered it to be entirely destroyed, 
and the inhabitants put to the sword. This 
was done from policy and reasons of state, that 
the others might be intimidated. To one of the 
cities he granted an honorable capitulation, and 
yet he seized the mercenaries, as they were 
upon their march homeward, and put them all 
to the sword. Musicanus, one of the princes 
who had submitted, afterward endeavored to 
regain his independence. He was taken pris- 
oner, and Alexander had him crucified, together 
with several Brachmans, who had instigated 
him to revolt. 

Our hero went on spreading ruin and deso- 
lation wherever the inhabitants dared to defend 
their country against the stranger, as if self- 
defence were a crime. He passed the Indus, 
and most of the kings submitted to him ; but 
Porus, one of the most powerful, had not yet 
come. In order to attack him, he had to pass 
the Hydaspes, a large river, which he effected 
by an able stratagem, but with great danger of 
his life. It was on this occasion he cried out, 
'O Athenians, could you think that I would 



84 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

expose myself to such dangers to merit your 
applause V Thus we see, that the love of 
praise was the mainspring of all his actions, and 
not the love of his country or even of his coun- 
try's glory, for Athens was not his country, but 
producing writers of history, such as Thucidi- 
des and Zenophon, he was anxious to get him- 
self a name in their books, for " he loved the 
praise of man more than the praise of God." 

Alexander passed the river, attacked and 
defeated Porus, killed two of his sons and many 
thousands of his soldiers, and destroyed many 
of his elephants. Porus still fought with great 
bravery, but, at length, was obliged to retreat. 
The king sent after him, promising him advan- 
tageous terms, and Porus turned back to meet 
him. Alexander asked him how he wished to 
be treated. " Like a king," replied Porus. 
Alexander had a high idea of the kingly office, 
and this answer pleased him so much, that he 
restored to Porus his kingdom, but he could not 
give him back his sons. He had conquered 
him, only to show that he could conquer, and to 
attest the bravery of the hero. 

After this famous victory over Porus, the 
king advanced into India, where he subdued a 
great many nations and cities. He looked upon 
himself as a conqueror by profession, as well as 
by his dignity, and engaged every day in new 
exploits with so much ardor and vivacity, that 
he seemed to fancy himself invested with a 
personal commission, and that there was an 
immediate obligation on him to storm all cities, 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 85 

to lay waste all provinces, to extirpate all nations 
that should refuse his yoke, and that he should 
have considered himself guilty of a crime, had 
he forbore visiting every corner of the earth, 
and carrying terror and desolation wherever he 
went. Indeed, he was hurried on by a power 
superior to himself, like a pestilence or a torna- 
do, to sweep away the nations, as with the 
besom of destruction. But this power he neither 
knew nor acknowledged, but, hearkened only to 
his own guilty passions, to whose direction God 
gave him up, while, by his providence, he open- 
ed the way for his conquests, for heroes are the 
scourges of God, with which he chastises the 
guilty nations. 

Alexander passed the Acecines and the Hy- 
draotes, two considerable rivers. Advice was 
then brought him, that a great number of free 
Indians had made a confederacy to defend their 
liberties, This was a great crime in the eyes 
of the hero; and he attacked them, defeated 
them, took their chief city, and razed it to the 
very foundations. 

Alexander now prepared to pass the Ganges, 
the greatest river in India, but his soldiers were 
unwilling to follow him. He addressed them 
with his wonted eloquence, but still their eyes 
were cast on the ground, waiting for their gen- 
erals to speak in their behalf. But the examples 
of Clitus and Calisthenes were still recent, and 
no one had the courage to speak his mind. At 
length, Coenus ventured to address the king in 
a speech, of which the following is an extract. 
8* 



86 THE HERO OF MACEDOI* 

" The greatness of your exploits, sir, has con- 
quered, not only your enemies, but, even your 
soldiers themselves. We have done all that it 
was possible for men to do. We have crossed 
seas and lands. We shall soon have passed to 
the end of the world, and you are meditating 
the conquest of another, by going in search of 
new Indies unknown to the Indians themselves. 
Such a thought may be worthy of your valor, 
but it surpasses ours, and our strength still more. 
Behold those ghastly faces, and those bodies 
covered with wounds and scars. You are sen- 
sible how numerous we were at our first setting 
out, and you see what now remains of us. The 
few who have escaped so many toils and dan- 
gers, are neither brave nor strong enough to 
follow you. All of them wish to revisit their 
relations and country, and to enjoy, in peace, 
the fruit of their labors and your victories." 

Ccenus had no sooner spoken, than there were 
heard, on all sides, cries and confused voices, 
confirming what he had said, but the king 
would not comply with their request. He shut 
himself up two days in his tent, in a sulky mood, 
in hopes the soldiers would change their mind, 
but in vain, and having cried that he could push 
his conquests no farther, he determined to return. 
But here again he showed his vanity. He or- 
dered twelve altars to be erected, each 75 feet 
high, and laid out a stupendous camp, with 
ditches 50 feet deep, the beds of his soldiers 
were made seven and a half feet long, and the 
mangers of the horses and every thing else in 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 87 

proportion, in order to make posterity believe, 
that he commanded an army of giants. 

Alexander now set out on his return, and 
sailed down the Hydaspes, a branch of the Indus, 
with a fleet which consisted of 800 vessels, but 
still he indulged in the pleasure of fighting, which 
he loved for its own sake, as well as a means of 
his glory, and having defeated the natives, he 
besieged the city of the Oxydracse, and himself 
scaled the wall and jumped down into the city 
alone, where he was very near paying for his 
rashness with his life, but was rescued by his 
followers. The city was taken and all the 
inhabitants put to the sword, without distinction 
of age or sex. Continuing his course down the 
river, in nine months he aifived at Patala, 
near the mouth of the Indus, and from thence 
he determined to sail as far as the ocean, thus 
exposing himself and his army to great hazard, 
barely to say that he had seen the ocean, and 
sailed to the end of the world, which he boasted 
that he had conquered. At length, the army 
arrived at the sea, and were very much surprised 
at the rise and fall of the tide, for great con- 
querers as they were, they were ignorant of the 
ebbing and flowing of the sea. 



88 THE HERO OF MACEDON 



CHAPTER XL 

Alexander set3 out on his return .... The army suffers much from 
famine and pestilence .... Drunken march through Carmania.... 
Death of Hepheestion. 

Alexander having returned to Patala, sent 
Nearchus with the best of his ships to the ocean, 
with directions to sail into the Persian Gulf and 
up to Babylon, and set out on his return thither 
by land with the rest of his army. He was now 
in great want of provisions, and lost great num- 
bers of his men by famine and the sword. This 
is often the fate of conquering armies, having 
ravaged the face of the earth, like caterpillars, 
and devoured every thing eatable they themselves 
at last die with famine. The great Napoleon's 
army suffered a similar fate in Russia. What 
with sickness, fatigue, hardships, famine, and 
the sword, the king brought back from India 
scarce a fourth part of his army. After having 
consumed all the palm-tree roots they could find, 
they were obliged to eat their horses and beasts 
of burden, and to burn those rich spoils for 
which they had marched to the end of the world. 
Pestilence completed what famine had begun, 
and destroyed vast numbers of them. Thus the 
scourges of God are scourged themselves, and 
the destroyers are destroyed. At length, after 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 89 

sixty days of hardships, they arrived at a more 
plentiful country, and the king refreshed and 
remounted the remainder of his army, having 
now arrived in the confines of the conquered 
country. 

He marched through Carmania, now called 
Kirman, in a kind of masquerade and baccha- 
nalian festivity, committing the most riotous and 
extravagant actions, and passed whole days and 
nights in feasting and carousing. On the sides 
of the roads and at the doors of the houses, a 
great number of casks, ready broached, were 
placed, whence the soldiers drew wine in large 
flaggons, cups, and goblets, prepared for the 
purpose. The whole country echoed with the 
sound of instruments and the howling of baccha- 
nals, who, with their hair disheveled, ran up 
and down, abandoning themselves to all kinds 
of licentiousness. This he did in imitation of 
the triumph of Bacchus, the drunken god whom 
he worshipped, and who it is said by the heathen 
poets, crossed all Asia in this manner, after he 
had conquered India. This riotous march lasted 
seven days, during all which time the army was 
never sober. It was very happy, says Quintus 
Curtius, for them, that the conquered nations 
did not think of attacking them in this condition, 
for a thousand resolute men, well armed, might 
with great ease, have defeated these conquerors 
of the world, whilst plunged in wine and excess, 
but God had reserved for the hero a still more 
inglorious fate. 

Continuing his march, he was met by Orsines, 



90 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

one of the governors of the conquered provinces, 
who made splendid presents to Alexander and 
all his court, except to the eunuch Bagoas, the 
kings minion. This so enraged Bagoas that he 
determined on the ruin of Orsines, which he 
accomplished by charging him with robbing the 
tomb of Cyrus the Great, and such was his as- 
cendancy over his master, that the king ordered 
Orsines to be loaded with chains and put to 
death without so much as being heard. 

One of the Indian Brachmans, or Brahmins, 
as we now call them, had followed Alexander 
thus far from India, and being now old, he 
determined to burn himself on a funeral pile, 
according to the custom of his country. This 
he did, and, on taking leave of his friends, 
desired them to make merry and carouse with 
the king. Accordingly Alexander invited some 
of them to supper, and proposed a crown as 
the reward for him who would drink most. He 
who conquered on this occasion, was Promachus, 
who swallowed more than two gallons. After 
receiving the prize, which was a crown worth 
a talent, he survived his victory but three days. 
Of these guests, forty-one died of their intem- 
perance. Such men were the conquerors of the 
world ! 

On the king's return to Susa, he married 
Statira, the daughter of Darius, and encouraged 
his followers to marry Persian women, making 
them great presents, and giving them what they 
had helped him to plunder from the conquered 
nations, which, indeed, was already as much 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 91 

theirs as his, for even pirates go on shares. The 
hero now abandoned himself to intemperance, 
and held many drunken revels, in one of which 
Hephaestion, his chief favorite lost his life : 
having drank excessively, he fell sick of a fever, 
and afterward, as a young man and a soldier, 
not being able to bear to be kept to strict diet, 
and seizing the opportunity of dining when his 
physician was gone to the theatre, he ate roasted 
fowl and drank a cooler full of wine. 

Alexander's grief was excessive on this occa- 
sion. He immediately ordered the horses and 
mules to be shorn, that they might have their 
share in the mourning ; and, with the same 
view, pulled down the battlements of the neigh- 
boring cities. The poor physician he crucified. 
He forbade the flute and all other music in his 
camp for a long time. This continued until he 
received an oracle pretended to be from Jupiter- 
Ammon, enjoining him to revere Hephaestion as 
a demi-god. After which, he sought to relieve 
his sorrow by hunting, or rather by. war, for his 
game were men. In this expedition, he con- 
quered the Cassaeans in forty days, and put all 
that had attained the years of puberty to the 
sword. This he called a sacrifice to Hephaes- 
tion's manes. He then marched towards Bab- 
ylon, which, at first, he was afraid to enter, on 
account of the prognostications of some fortune- 
tellers-. 



92 THE HERO OF MACEDOtf 



CHAPTER XII. 

Funeral of Hephsestion .... Alexander embellishes Babylon .... Hisf 
superstition .... His death and funeral. 

At Babylon, Alexander found ambassadors 
from almost all parts of the known world, come 
to do him homage. He now celebrated the 
funeral services of Hephsestion with wonderful 
expense and magnificence, tearing down three 
quarters of a mile of the stupendous wall of 
Babylon, to make room for the monument, which 
he erected over the funeral pile, a hundred 
fathoms square and 195 feet high. The cost 
was between eight and nine millions of dollars, 
the plunder of nations bought with the blood of 
his subjects, and for which whole kingdoms 
were ravaged with fire and sword and strewed 
with blood and ashes. 

Peace did not suit the disposition of Alexan- 
der, who was never happy unless engaged in 
blood-shed and warfare, and he contemplated 
other great enterprises, such as the conquest of 
Europe and Africa. Intending to make Babylon 
the seat of his empire, he set out to embellish 
and improve it. For this he deserved commen- 
dation if it was done in a proper spirit, for cer- 
tainly the embellishment of a city is much more 
deserving of praise than the destruction of one. 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 93 

He also endeavored to repair a breach in the 
dyke, which had been raised to keep the 
Euphrates in its proper channel, but in this 
work he found difficulties, and it was never 
completed, for the curse of God had been pro- 
nounced against Babylon. " I will cut off from 
Babylon the name and remnant," (Isaiah 14 : 
22, 23,) had the Lord of hosts sworn above 
300 years before. " I will make it a possession 
for the bittern and pools of water, and I will 
sweep it with the besom of destruction. It 
shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be 
dwelt in from generation to generation, neither 
shall the shepherds make their folds there." 
(Isaiah 13 :20.) Heaven and earth should sooner 
have passed away than Alexander's design been 
put in execution. No river was now to flow 
through Babylon ; the places round it were to 
be overflowed and changed into uninhabitable 
fens ; it was to be rendered inaccessible by 
prodigious quantities of mud and dirt, and the 
city, as well as the country about it, were to be 
covered with stagnated waters, which would 
made all access to it impracticable. Thus it 
now lies, and all things were to conspire to 
reduce it to this dejected state, in order that the 
prophecy might be completely fulfilled, for " the 
Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall 
disannul it? And his hand is stretched out, 
and who shall turn it back ?" (Isaiah 14 : 27.) 
Alexander could conquer kingdoms because 
God had decreed it, but he could not dam the 
9 



94 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

river, which appears but a small work, for God 
had purposed otherwise. 

Alexander was tormented by his superstitions, 
and was much terrified by the omens of the 
fortune-tellers ; and he was always looking out 
for unlucky signs and wonders. He lived most 
in his pavilion without the walls, and diverted 
himself with sailing on the Euphrates. One 
of his largest lions was kicked to death by 
an ass. This frightened him, He put to death 
a poor crazy man, who had, in his absence, set 
down on his throne. He was so worried with 
vain fears and anxieties, that he turned any 
incident, which was in any respect strange, into 
a sign or a prodigy. The court swarmed with 
sacrificers, purifiers, and prognosticators ; and 
he became a prey to continual fears. Great as 
he was, the least in the kingdom of heaven is 
greater than he, and the meanest and humblest 
child of Christ, who can depend on his Saviour 
and his God, has no occasion to envy the con- 
queror of the world, even in this life, to say 
nothing of another, where preeminence in crime, 
will only cause preeminence in punishment. 

To divert his mind from these painful fore- 
bodings, the king was forever solemnizing new 
festivals, in which he drank with his usual in- 
temperance. After having spent a whole night 
in carousing, a second was proposed to him. 
Pie met accordingly, and there were twenty 
guests at table. He drank to the health of every 
person in company, and then pledged them sev- 
erally. After this, calling for Hercules's cup ; 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 95 

which held six bottles, it was filled, when he 
poured it all down, drinking to one of the com- 
pany and afterwards pledged him again in the 
same furious bumper. This, though vouched 
by historians, is much more incredible than any 
of his exploits on the field of blood, probably 
they thought it would add to his glory. How- 
ever this may be, he had no sooner swallowed 
the second bumper, than he fell upon the floor. 
" Here then," cries Seneca, describing the fatal 
effects of intemperance, "is this hero, invincible 
to all the toils of prodigious marches, to the 
dangers of sieges and combats ; to the most 
violent extremes of heat and cold ; here he lies, 
conquered by his intemperance, and struck to 
the earth by the fatal cup of Hercules." 

In this condition, he was siezed with a violent 
fever, and carried half dead to his palace. The 
fever continued, though he had some lucid inter- 
vals, a part of which he occupied in playing 
dice, but, at last, finding himself past all hopes, 
he drew his ring from his finger and gave it to 
Perdiccas, with orders to convey his corpse to 
the temple of Jupiter-Ammon. He, however, 
struggled with death, but made no disposition 
of his vast dominions by naming a successor, 
which he foresaw would be useless, but, when 
pressed on that subject, intimated that his friends 
would fight for the division of his empire, which 
had already been predicted to him in the proph- 
ecy of Daniel. Having been asked when they 
should pay him divine honors, he answered, 
" when you are happy." These were his last 



96 THE HERO OF MACED0N 

words, and soon after he expired. He was 
thirty-two years and eight months old, of which 
he had reigned twelve. He died in the spring, 
in the year 323 before Christ. 

Some believe that Alexander was poisoned 
by the intrigues of Antipater, his viceroy in his 
native kingdom of Macedonia. But it is of 
little importance to know, whether this scourge 
of God was removed by his own vices, or the 
crimes of his courtiers. Certain it is, that he 
died at the time when God had decreed that he 
should die. 

The Egyptians and Chaldeans having em- 
balmed the body after their manner, Arideus 
was appointed to convey it to the temple of 
Jupiter-Ammon. Two whole years were em- 
ployed in preparing for this magnificent funeral, 
which made his mother lament that his godship 
had deprived him for two years of a burial. 
The body was put into a coffin of beaten gold, 
and placed in a chariot all glistening with gold 
and precious stones, drawn by §4 mules, and 
accompanied by a great retinue of attendants 
and spectators. Ptolemy advanced to meet the 
procession with a numerous guard of his best 
troops, and prevented it from being carried into 
the desert, but had it conveyed to the city of 
Alexandria, where he erected a magnificent 
temple to the memory of Alexander, and render- 
ed him all the honors which are usually paid to 
demi-gods and heroes, 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 97 



CHAPTER XIIL 

Character of Alexander, physical and moral .... His ge neralship .... 
A religious view of his character and success .... His motives .... 
His patriotism .... Difference between the heroic and the Chris- 
tian characters .... Closing advice to the reader. 

In person, Alexander was rather below the 
middle stature. His constitution was robust, 
and his health was naturally very good, and he 
was capable of bearing great bodily fatigue — 
corporeal qualities indispensable to a hero. In 
courage he was never exceeded by any man, 
though, perhaps, he might have been by some 
other animals. It was rash, reckless, impetuous, 
and entirely regardless of consequences. No 
real danger ever damped it, though he was 
much annoyed with superstitious fears. 

To pass from his animal qualities to those of 
the mind — we have reason to believe that he 
was naturally frank, generous, and afFectionate. 
He loved science, in which he made considera- 
ble proficiency, and, had he devoted himself to 
learning, he would have taken a high stand in 
the republic of letters. But he was proud, 
arrogant, and vain. His ruling passion was a 
lust of praise. Had he lived in an age of the 
world, when men were honored for knowledge 
9* 



98 THE HERO OF MACEDOff 

more than for conquest, he would have devoted 
himself to science, but, unfortunately for himself 
and the world, men were then honored for their 
destruction, rather than their useful qualities, 
and he who did the most mischief in the world, 
generally got the most praise. This made 
Alexander a conqueror. His mind was poisoned 
by reading the poems of Homer, and, in imita- 
tion of the heroes of the Jliad, he sought for 
fame by deeds of blood and carnage. A famil- 
iarity with the scenes of war blunted all his finer 
feelings and chilled his sensibility; and he 
became jealous, cruel, ferocious, tyrannical, and 
luxurious. From avarice he was free, for the 
love of praise absorbed every other passion, 
except, in later years, a love of pleasure. He 
squandered vast sums to purchase praise. He 
liberally patronised artists and writers, but he 
allowed no one to carve his statue but Praxite- 
les, or to paint his portrait but Apelles, the 
greatest artists in Greece. But, of writers, he 
esteemed those best who flattered him most. 
The most pitiful scribbler, if he was lavish of his 
flattery, was lavishly repaid for his grateful in- 
cense ; and such were preferred, by this famous 
hero, to an Aristotle or a Zenophon, and received 
greater favors than even his own relations and 
generals. He was not less liberal to singers, 
pipers, and harpers, on whom he lavished, at 
one carousal, 10,000 talents, for chanting his 
bloody victories and sounding his praise. 

As to his military talents, he was never ex- 
celled in courage, and his generalship must have 






IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 99 

been very great. He had, however, generals 
in his army, much older than himself and wiser 
in council ; but, in the field and for execution, 
he never had an equal. It is true he had no 
general of talents to oppose him ; still, if we 
consider the vast superiority of the number of 
his opponents, and their, hitherto, impregnable 
walls and citadels, his generalship must have 
been extraordinary in a wonderful degree. He 
was by no means deficient in stratagem, though 
he used intrigue much less than his father, 
Philip. On the whole, we must consider Alex- 
ander the greatest hero that ever the world 
produced ; and, certainly, no one ever equalled 
him in the extent and rapidity of his conquests, 
especially, considering the smallness of his 
hereditary dominions. 

But there is quite another view which we 
ought to take of this subject. We ought to 
look at it hy the light of the Gospel — we should 
weigh the hero in the balances of the sanctuary — 
we should measure him by the standard of truth 
revealed in the word of God. In this view, we 
should see, that his success was owing to the 
counsel of God, who used him as a rod to chas- 
tise the nations, and we should apply to him 
the same language which the prophet Isaiah 
applied to a more ancient conqueror, whose 
descendants, he, in turn, conquered. " O As- 
syrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in 
their hand is mine indignation. I will send 
him against a hypocritical nation, and against 
the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, 



100 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to 
tread them down like the mire of the streets. 
Howbeit, he meaneth not so, neither doth his 
heart think so, but it is in his heart, to destroy 
and cut off nations not a few." (Isaiah 10 : 5-7.) 
But the Lord denounced vengeance on the very 
instrument he had used, saying, " I will punish 
the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the 
glory of his high looks. For he saith, by the 
strength of my hand I have done it, for I am 
prudent." (Isaiah 10 : 12, 13.) And asks, " Shall 
the axe boast itself against him that heweth 
therewith ? or shall the saw magnify itself 
against him that shaketh it ? as if the rod 
should shake itself against them that lift it up." 
(Isaiah 10 : 15.) It was this determination of 
God to punish the guilty nations, which saved 
his life in the day of battle — it was this which 
infatuated the nations and gave them over to 
foolish counsels. He was to scourge the nations, 
but he was only the rod in the hand of God. 
But this did not excuse him, any more than it 
did the wicked Jews who crucified the Lord of 
glory, and which was charged upon them by 
Peter, when he said, " Him, being delivered 
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge 
of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands 
have crucified and slain." (Acts 3: 23.) Wick- 
ed men do the will of God when they least 
intend it : and he can make the wrath of man 
to praise him. But this takes no glory from 
Alexander in the estimation of the world, any 
more than it does from other conquerors, who 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 101 

have been, like the earthquake, the pestilence, 
and famine, scourges of the human race, which 
are terrible in their operations, but guiltless in 
themselves, not being moral agents ; but con- 
querors are moral agents, and guilty, in the 
sight of God, and without repentance, they will 
reap the due reward of their deeds. 

Again, if, we consider his leading motive, 
which was a love of praise, we shall find, that 
the gospel forbids it, and so would reason, if 
men could be brought to think upon the subject, 
for, of all the corrupt lusts and passions of the 
heart of man, from which wars proceed, the love 
of praise is the most selfish and exclusive. If 
we look at Alexander's conduct we shall find it 
marked with suspicion, jealousy, hatred, revenge, 
cruelty, robbery, and murder, with which the 
scenes of war had made him familiar, as well as 
-with the dissolute manners of the camp. In- 
deed, he was but a wholesale highwayman and 
a great pirate, and he was well answered by a 
pirate, who, as Cicero relates, was arraigned 
before him, though the time is not specified. 
When Alexander asked him, what right he had 
to infest the seas : " The same/ 5 said the pirate, 
" that thou hast to infest the universe, but, 
because I do this in a small ship, I am called a 
robber: and, because thou actest the same part 
with a large fleet, thou art entitled a conqueror I" 
To sum up the life and character of Alexander 
in a few words, he lived the life of a robber, 
and died the death of a drunkard. 

I have a word to say concerning Alexanders 



102 THE HERO OF MACEDOJS' 

patriotism, because all heroes boast much of 
their love of country, when, if their conduct be 
closely examined, it will be found, that the love 
of praise has been the motive, while patriotism 
has been only the pretence. Charles XII, of 
Sweden, who made Alexander his model, as the 
latter did Achilles, ruined his country to advance 
his own glory. He spent his time far from 
Sweden, in battles that were of no use to his 
country, which he drained of men and money, 
and reduced to a state of poverty and servility, 
from which she has not yet recovered. Napoleon 
Bonaparte was a native of Corsica, but, in all 
his success, he neglected his native isle, and, 
indeed, was ashamed to own it as his birth-place. 
So Alexander, having once left Macedonia for 
Persia, took no more thought for his native 
country, but, so far as he could, drained from it 
its male population to be sacrificed to his glory, 
while the wretched remnant were left a prey to 
mercenary governors and rapacious agents, and, 
amid ail the glory of Alexander's victories, the 
state was impoverished and oppressed, and in 
many respects fared worse than the conquered 
provinces. 

It becomes a patriotic king or chief magistrate, 
and is among the most excellent virtues of a 
great prince, to be the guardian and shepherd 
of his people, to encourage the arts and sciences, 
to promote agriculture, commerce, and manu- 
factures; to establish peace and plenty ; to see 
that justice is distributed to all ; and that no one 
of his subjects is oppressed ; and, in fact, to be 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 103 

the father of his people ; and not to compel 
them to throw away their lives to promote his 
own glory. Now Alexander took no thought 
for any of these things. 

But the circumstances which proved most 
fatal to his family and empire, was, his having 
taught the generals, who survived him, to 
breathe nothing but ambition and war. He 
foresaw the prodigious lengths they would go 
after his death. To curb their ambitious views, 
and for fear of mistaking in his conjectures, he 
did not dare to name his successor. He only 
foretold, that his friends would solemnize his 
obsequies with bloody battles, and he expired 
in the flower of his age, full of the sad images 
of the confusion which would follow his death. 

And, indeed, Macedonia, the kingdom he 
inherited, which his ancestors had governed 
during so many ages, was invaded on all sides, 
as a succession which had become vacant, and, 
after being long exposed a prey, was, at last, 
possessed by another family. Thus this great 
conqueror, the most renowned the world ever 
saw, was the last king of his family. Had he 
lived peaceably in Macedon, the vast bounds of 
his empire would not have proved a temptation 
to his generals, and he would have left to his 
children, the kingdom he inherited from his 
ancestors. But, rising to too exalted a height 
of power, he proved the destruction of his pos- 
terity, and such was the inglorious fruit of all 
his conquests. 

Before I bring my little book to a close, I 



104 THE HERO OF MACEDON 

would say something concerning the utter dis* 
crepancy between the Christian and the heroic 
characters, and I shall prove, by the word of 
God, that these characters are as opposite to 
one another, as light to darkness, heaven to hell. 
First, by the precepts of Christ and his apos- 
tles. The Christian is told, " Blessed are the 
poor in spirit " — but the hero is proud in spirit : 
" Blessed are the meek " — the hero is violent ; 
" Blessed are the merciful" — the hero shows 
no mercy, except from policy ; " Blessed are the 
peace-makers" — the hero is a war-maker. 
We are commanded, " Thou shah not kill" — 
but the hero's trade and occupation is to kill. 
The Christian is forbidden to be " angry with 
his brother without a cause " — the hero is angry 
with all who stand in the way of his glory. The 
Christian is commanded to " resist not evil, but 
whosoever shall smite thee on one cheek, turn 
to him the other also" — the hero treats this 
precept of our Saviour with utter scorn and 
contempt. Christ says, " Love your enemies" — 
no man can be a hero on these conditions, for, 
if he really loves his enemies, he must cease to 
distress and kill them. The Christian is com- 
manded to pray for the coming of the kingdom 
of God, that is, the millenium — the milienium 
will put an end to all heroes and heroism. The 
Christian is taught to forgive — the hero glories 
in revenge. We are commanded to forgive our 
brother even if he offends us seventy times 
seven. Now the scriptures inform us, that, 
" God hath made of one blood all the nations 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 105 

for to dwell on the face of the earth together." 
Therefore all men are brethren ; and all the 
precepts, which refer to our duty to our brethren, 
extend to the whole human race. By the para- 
ble of the good Samaritan, Christ taught us that 
we should consider the citizen of any country, 
even the most inimical to our own, as a neighbor ; 
and that we should relieve his distress — but it 
is the glory of heroes to treat all, but their own 
countrymen, as enemies, and on the slightest 
provocation, to destroy them. The Christian 
is taught, " Whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you, do ye even so to them " — no 
hero ever did this, and this precept alone, if 
practised, would put an end to all war, offensive 
and defensive. The true Christian is. called a 
lamb, and a dove — the hero calls himself a lion 
and an eagle. The Christian is commanded if he 
is " persecuted in one city to flee to another " '■ — 
the hero destroys the city that offends him. 
Christ commanded his disciple to " put up his 
sword " — the hero draws his sword. John the 
Baptist commanded the soldiers to " do violence 
to no man" — the very business of the hero is 
to commit violence. The Christian is com- 
manded to " overcome evil with good " — the 
hero overcomes evil with evil. The Christian 
is commanded " not to be desirous of vain- 
glory" — glory is the hero's chief object and 
desire. " The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, 
peace, longsuffering, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance." The fruits of heroism are hatred, 
anger, war, revenge, fierceness, wickedness, 
10 



106 THE HERO OF MACEDGN 

infidelity, rage, intemperance. Christians are 
commanded " to submit to one another in the 
fear of God 3 ' — -the hero submits to no one. 
The Christian is taught that " the servant of the 
Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men " — 
who then that is a Christian can be a hero 1 
The Christian is commanded to " follow peace 
with all men." If the hero obeyed this com- 
mandment he would never Jight. These are 
but a part of the precepts, which oppose war 
and heroism, that are scattered through the 
whole of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. 

Leaving the precepts of the gospel, we now 
come to the character of Christ, which was the 
very opposite to heroism. According to the 
prophecies, " He was oppressed and afflicted, 
yet he opened not his mouth : He is brought as 
a lamb to the slaughter, and, as a sheep before 
her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his 
mouth. " " He gave his back to the smiters, 
and his cheek to them that plucked off the hair." 
What hero could take Christ for his pattern in 
these things 1 The prophet represents Christ 
as coming to his kingdom " meek and lowly, 
sitting upon an ass." How will this compare 
with the triumphant entry of a hero 1 The 
prophecies, which predicted Christ, were exactly 
fulfilled in his pacific character. If heroism be 
consistent with the character of Christ and of 
his religion, then we have yet to wait for the 
Messiah. But Christ did actually fulfil the 
prophecies relating to him, which shows that 



IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 107 

heroism is not consistent with his religion. 
Christ says he came " to bring peace " — the 
hero brings war. Christ came not " to destroy 
men's lives " — to destroy life is the glory of 
the hero. Christ says his kingdom is not of 
this world, " If my kingdom were of this world, 
then would my servants fight" — the kingdom 
of the hero is of this world, and he makes his 
servants fight. Indeed, we cannot even conceive 
of our Saviour in the character of a military 
hero. Hogarth, himself, could not paint our 
Saviour dressed up in the gaudy habiliments of 
war, ordering the battle and leading on his 
disciples to charge, with the cavalry or the 
bayonet, and spreading death and destruction 
around. He could as well paint a lamb like a 
lion, or a dove like an eagle. But " if any man 
hath not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 
The following characteristics, from the Epistle 
to the Romans, suits the heroic character, but 
is a perfect contrast to the character of the true 
Christian. " Their feet are swift to shed blood, 
destruction and misery are in their ways, and 
the way of peace have they not known. There 
is no fear of God before their eyes." 

My dear young reader, " Look on this pic- 
ture, and on this," and if ever your pride and 
ambition have been excited by reading the 
exploits of heroes, or if the gay trappings of 
war, and the thrill of martial music have made 
you sigh for the distinctions and decorations of 
the soldier, look into your Bible, and then you 
will see, that Christ, himself, hath said, that 



108 THB HERO OP KIACEIXM*. 

" those things which are highly esteemed among 
men, are an abomination in the sight of God," 
and that, if you are even " the least in the 
kingdom of heaven," you are greater than 
Alexander the Great. Therefore seek not the 
honor which cometh from men, but for that 
" charity which is first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle and easy to be intreated." "Put on the 
Lord Jesus Christ," instead of the gaudy trap- 
pings of war : be meek as he was meek, and 
merciful as he was merciful, and he will give 
you a crown of righteousness, not like the 
fading, unstable crowns of this world, but one 
" that shall never fade away, reserved in the 
heavens for all such as love his appearance and 
kingdom." May this be your happy portion, 
Amen. 



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